


Much To Do About Everything

by dianna44



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Enemies to Lovers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, Much Ado About Nothing AU, Overall General Ridiculousness, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Rivalry, Star Trek AU, Starfleet Academy, Victor and Yuuri are both nerds tbh, You don't need to have watched Star Trek to understand this, okay maybe a tiny tiny bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2018-12-10 12:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11691759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dianna44/pseuds/dianna44
Summary: Victor and Yuuri won't stop complaining about each other. Phichit and Chris, being the wonderful best friends that they are, just want them to shut the hell up.Starfleet Academy/Star Trek/Much Ado About Nothing AU.





	1. Initiation

**Author's Note:**

> !!!!!!!!!! WOW. so i've been reading so much star trek fanfiction lately and watching so much of the original series so combine that with my love for victuuri and we get this!!!! 
> 
> i mentioned in the tags that you don't need any experience with star trek to understand this! the starfleet academy is basically a graduate university for people wanting to go into the starfleet. 
> 
> some terms in this: PADD stands for "Personal Access Display Device" - just treat it like an ipad/phone/computer kind of thing. :) and I say "comm" now and then that just stands for "communicate/message" also!! there are several races like "Vulcan, Andorian, Orion" etc etc! those aren't important! they just stand for races and have no plot relevance! :)  
> also there's this class that's Xenolinguistics- it's basically a language class :)
> 
> i'm super super excited to write this tbh :)) i adore star trek so much, and this idea sprung on me randomly when i couldn't sleep. originally, i was going to write a "much ado about nothing" au separately and unrelated to star trek.... but oh well!
> 
> i hope you like it and if you have any questions, let me know!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> initiation- (noun) the action of beginning something

Victor felt the world crumbling as he glared down at his progress report in distress. He had gone all year as the top of his class, and yet and yet and _yet—_ Chris snorted when he saw his face.

“Not number one anymore?” he asks, innocent expression all over his pretty face.

“It’s Katsuki.”

“How do you know it’s him?” Chris asks. Victor rolls his eyes.

“Of _course_ it’s him. It’s been him for the past two years, and it’s going to be him for the rest of my miserable Starfleet career.” Victor groans, collapsing on the couch with much needed energy.

“You’re being dramatic,” Chris says, sitting down beside him.

“You’d know,” Victor mutters, closing his report angrily and placing his PADD onto his desk beside the couch. It’s a wonder they even managed to fit this couch in their tiny room together.

Chris scoffs at him. “You’ll get back to being number one soon, Victor. Like you said, it’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.”

Victor tries not to groan at that. He settles for sighing unnecessarily loud instead. “Yes, but what if _he’s_ the one in the number one spot by the time we graduate? _That’s_ what matters, Chris.”

“Does it?”

Victor glances at him. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it?”

Chris shrugs. “I mean, I’ve heard Yuuri doesn’t even want to be a leader. He’s just really interested in navigating.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“You hear things.”

“ _Chris_.”

Chris laughs, putting his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. I mean, he’s in two of my classes, Vic. I’m bound to talk to him. He told me.”

“You _talked_ to him?”

Chris rolls his eyes. “Yes. And he told me he wasn’t even interested in ever being a captain or anything like that. He might even try to be a science officer.”

Victor gapes at him, trying to understand what he’s feeling. His eyebrow twitches. “So, the current damn valedictorian of our class doesn’t even want to be a captain one day? Not even a commander?”

“Pretty much,” Chris says, smiling. “Which is why I said that _you_ shouldn’t worry about something as stupid as grades when you’re already number two. You’ll become captain, Victor. I really don’t doubt that.”

“I don’t want to be _second-best_ ,” Victor mumbles. Chris laughs at him.

“You _aren’t,_ considering Yuuri isn’t even going into the same field as you.”

Victor knows this should calm him down, but for some reason, it’s only pissing him off even more. How _dare_ Katsuki? He’s currently top in the class, and doesn’t even want to be a captain one day? Victor knows that being captain isn’t the dream for everybody, but it’s _his_ dream, and he just feels that since he’s so competitive with Yuuri, it should be his dream as well, right?

Apparently not.

Victor sighs, ignoring Chris’s eyes on him.

“I’m going to beat him,” is all he says. He will. He has to. He _wants_ to.

Chris just laughs again, stretching as he stands up. He looks down at Victor and offers him his hand. “Want to get something to eat?”

Victor shrugs, taking his hand. “Yeah, sure.”

(He tries not to think about Katsuki for the rest of the day.

It proves to be very difficult indeed.)

 

 

Yuuri Katsuki is already in his seat when Victor arrives to class, much like he always is. Victor rolls his eyes.

 _Such a rule follower_ , he thinks petulantly as he sits down in his own seat that’s across the room from Katsuki.

This is his only class with Katsuki, automatically making it his least-favorite class. Then again, astrophysics is one of his favorite subjects, but one glance at Katsuki brings up all his distaste and dissatisfaction once again.

Their professor, Dr. Feltsman, also seems to absolutely adore Katsuki, making it all the less bearable.

(Victor _knows_ he’s being dramatic, but he doesn’t _care_. Katsuki is _irritating_.)

When Dr. Feltsman finally walks in, everyone in the class sits up straight, greeting him. This may be a classroom, but all of them are also cadets and Dr. Feltsman still holds ranking above all of them.

He grunts at them, placing his papers down on his desk. Grabbing his remote, he points it at the large screen, and their lesson plan is brought up.

“Can somebody tell me what the Elway Theorem is?”

Victor grins, immediately shooting his hand up in the air. An uneasy murmur goes across the classroom, and Victor stiffens, already knowing that Katsuki’s hand is also in the air. He looks at him.

Damn him.

Dr. Feltsman seems amused. “Nikiforov?”

Victor has to fight down the urge to smirk when he sees Katsuki’s pointed glare at him.

“The Elway Theorem was a proposal for adaptive transport by the scientist Elway. It proposed a new method of transportation, which would utilize inter-dimensional shifting,” he says. Victor can see Katsuki rolling his eyes at him.

Dr. Feltsman studies him for a moment, and then asks, “And what did this theory prove to be?”

Victor’s raising his hand again, but Dr. Feltsman doesn’t waste any time when he calls on Katsuki. Victor purses his lips, ignoring the smug look on Katsuki’s face.

“Cadet Nikiforov failed to mention that the theory was abandoned when it was discovered that utilizing such transportation would result in cumulative damage since every jump would slightly warp the DNA and affect the cell chemistry of anyone using the technology.”

Victor glares at him, and several other students giggle to themselves.

Dr. Feltsman only ignores them, continuing on with his lesson, but Victor can’t get the words _“Cadet Nikiforov failed to mention”_ out of his head.

Dr. Feltsman goes on to mention the other types of folded-space transporters, but Victor just spends most of the time glaring (albeit also admiring) Katsuki’s face. What a stupid face.

Victor knows he’s “exhibited childlike symptoms” when it comes to Katsuki (thanks to his Vulcan friend, Romar), but he can’t _help_ it.

Katsuki just makes him feel so… so _agitated_.

Victor sighs as he pulls his gaze away from Katsuki and back to their professor, who’s outlining older theories from Terran scientists.

He needs to stop being so competitive with Katsuki; it’s starting to annoy him as well.

 

 

“Why is he so… so _perfect_?!” Yuuri exclaims that same day, shoving his head into his pillow. Phichit giggles.

“You’re talking about Victor again, aren’t you?” he asks.

Yuuri turns to stare at him. “Of course I am. Do you know anybody else that’s as irritatingly perfect as he is? I don’t. If you do, please let me know. Then I can try to hook Nikiforov up with them. Match made in heaven.”

Phichit sits down on his own bed, and grins at Yuuri. “What about you, Cadet _Valedictorian_?”

Yuuri blushes. “Maybe that’s why he was glaring at me so much today in astrophysics.”

Phichit reaches down, bringing out of his PADD to look at the text required for Advanced Xenolinguistics.

“Oh, he was?” Phichit asks absent-mindedly, scrolling to a random page.

“I just said he was!” Yuuri says. Phichit doesn’t even respond, and Yuuri scowls at him, turning his head so he’s staring at the ceiling.

It’s quiet for a few minutes, and finally, when Yuuri’s calmed down again, he asks, “I’m being ridiculous, aren’t I?”

Phichit sends him a soft smile. “No more than I am.”

Yuuri pushes himself up, sitting up straight, and he crosses his arms. “You are kind of ridiculous,” he muses. Phichit throws his pillow at him.

Yuuri catches it, laughing.

“I think it’s cute,” Phichit finally says. At Yuuri’s confused expression, he adds, “You and Victor. How competitive you two are. I think it’s cute. The beginning of a love story, I swear it is.”

Yuuri blushes, shaking his head. “I don’t even like him, Phichit.”

Phichit just stares at him. Yuuri looks away.

“I could maybe try talking to Chris about it?”

Yuuri glances at him again. “You mean Nikiforov’s friend?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would you even need to talk to him?”

Phichit grins. “I could ask why Victor is such a dick to you. Then again, it’s not like you’re the poster child when talking to him either. I don’t know. I could always just ask if he could ask Victor to be nicer to you?”

Yuuri already knows he couldn’t convince him otherwise, so he just nods. “Okay. Thanks.”

Phichit is still grinning at him. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow then.” He looks back down at his PADD, and Yuuri lies back down.

Staring at the ceiling, he vaguely wonders what it’d be like to be friends with Victor Nikiforov.

 

 

Walking back from breakfast, Victor’s explaining how he’s going to do his project for his Survival Strategies class to Chris. Chris doesn’t say anything except for humming occasionally or a “yes, I get it, Victor,” but Victor doesn’t mind. Survival Strategies is one of his favorite classes, and he just got assigned a _project_ for it.

They’re stopped, however, when one of Notoriously Evil Katsuki’s friends stops them.

Victor’s about to ask if he can get out of the way, but then Chris is grinning at him, and saying, “Phichit! Hi! What’s up?”

Phichit glances at Victor, frowning, and then back to Chris. “Can I talk to you in private for a moment?”

Chris looks a little confused, but agrees nonetheless.

“I’ll wait here,” Victor says, nodding. He wanted somebody to talk to about his project though….

He leans against the wall for a minute before finally, he decides to stop a random girl and tell her about his project. She looks a little scared, but Victor knows she can get through it.

A few minutes later, after the girl had already run off with the excuse that ‘she’d be late for class,’ Phichit and Chris are _still_ talking.

Victor glances at them, noticing them laughing like maniacs together, and he frowns. Chris laughing like that is never a good thing. Sighing, he fights the urge to interrupt them. He wonders, instead, what the hell they’re even talking about, and why Phichit felt the need to stop them in the middle of the hallway to bring it up. Chris glances at him, and Victor looks away.

 _Finally_ , they stop talking and Victor frowns as Chris tells Phichit to message him later. When Chris walks back over to him, he studies him suspiciously. Chris ignores him.

“What was that about?” Victor finally lets himself ask.

“Nothing important,” is what Chris says, smiling a bit. Victor knows he’s lying.

“I don’t believe you,” he says.

Chris shrugs. “Believe what you want.”

Victor sighs, and gestures down the hall. “Well, whatever. Do you want to come with me to buy my materials for my _amazing_ project?”

“Sure.”

And Victor lets himself forget all about what happened.

(It doesn’t concern him anyway.)

 

 

“I talked to him!” Phichit announces as he comes in. Yuuri looks up from the article he was reading on his PADD.

“Chris?”

Phichit smiles. “Indeed.” He sits down, grabbing his own PADD. “He said he’d talk to him.”

“To Nikiforov?”

Phichit sighs. “Why don’t you just say his first name, Yuuri? It’s not like he’s here.”

Yuuri blushes. “I… it’s weird.”

“Well, anyway. Yes, he said he’d talk to Victor. Honestly, it was pretty funny to see Victor trying to be discreet with the glances he’d shoot us.”

Yuuri gapes at him. “Wait, was Victor _there_ when you talked to Chris?”

“You called him Victor.”

“Phichit.”

Phichit laughs. “Yes, he was _there_ , but don’t worry. He didn’t hear anything we talked about although it was pretty obvious he _wanted_ to.”

Yuuri tears his gaze from Phichit and looks back down at his PADD, wondering why it mattered so much that Nikiforov was there.

Yuuri purses his lips.

Why does he matter anyway? Why does any of it matter?

It shouldn’t matter, but… but Nikiforov is just so _pretentious_! Yuuri sighs softly, deciding to finish the article he was reading.

Phichit is obviously messaging somebody on his PADD. Yuuri doesn’t even care to wonder who.

 

 

“Who are you messaging?” Victor asks.

Chris looks up at him, immediately putting his PADD down. “What?”

“You’ve been messaging someone all night. Got a hot date?” Victor teases.

Chris smiles sweetly at him. “No… I mean… yes?” Chris seems confused now, and Victor isn’t sure why.

“Are they cute?”

“Don’t worry about it, Victor.”

“Okay….” Victor’s about to ask why he’s being so abrupt, but Chris speaks before he can.

“Hey, so, what do you think about Yuuri?”

“What do you mean what do I think? You know what I think. He’s annoying.”

 _Annoyingly kind_ , he thinks in his head. He dismisses that thought. _No, just annoying._

“He’s cute though, right?” says Chris.

Victor doesn’t understand what’s going on. “I mean, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, he’s cute. Hot even.” Chris is grinning at him now.

Victor wonders briefly if his body has been taken over by an alien life form.

“So you think he’s cute.”

Victor doesn’t say anything, eyeing Chris’s PADD. “Wait, is that who you’re talking to?!”

Shaking his head, Chris just laughs. “No, I just… heard a rumor.”

“A rumor?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, what is it?” Victor’s finding himself strangely annoyed that he has to ask. Why is Chris being so fucking vague?

“I don’t think I want to tell you. You’re being mean to me. Also, remember when you didn’t want to go skinny dipping with me last week? Because I do.”

“Chris.”

Chris shakes his head again. “I’ll tell you later. Maybe. If you earned it.”

Victor finally decides he doesn’t care anymore. He just smiles. “Whatever,” he laughs fondly. Chris is crazy, but he’s still his best friend.

And he’ll let his best friend get away with some secrets if he so wishes.

 

 

“Hey, Yuuri?”

“Yes?”

“Are you busy tomorrow?”

Yuuri looks up from the notes he was taking. “Um, I don’t have to be. Why?”

Phichit is grinning evilly at him. “Want to go to a party?

Yuuri shifts in his spot. “I’m not sure….”

“ _Please?_ It’ll be so fun. Plus, Seung-gil and Leo will be there and you like them, remember?”

“I do remember,” is all Yuuri says.

“Please?”

Yuuri sighs, giving in. “Okay, yeah. It’s tomorrow? Where?”

“It’s at one of Leo’s friend’s house.”

“Okay. You’re going too, right?”

“Of course! I’m going with you!”

“Well, I’ll just be here tomorrow then.”

“Thank you, Yuuri!”

Yuuri just hums his response. It’s been a while since he’s gone to a party.

He bites back a smile, musing how boring his life would be without Phichit in it.

 

 

Victor’s at another party tonight. It’s the weekend, and Victor figured he could let himself go to a party before he dedicates himself to his project. Plus, he isn’t sure Chris would have let him stay at home anyway. Chris has the worst talent at dragging him along to do things he doesn’t care about or even want to do.

(Not that he didn’t want to come to this. He did. He’s a little grateful Chris even told him about the party, honestly.)

When they arrive, the party has already been going on for almost two hours. Dozens and dozens of people are dancing and drinking, and Victor smiles widely at the sight. He loves parties when he’s in the mood for them, and he’s definitely in the mood tonight.

“I’m going to go dance.” When Chris doesn’t respond, Victor glances at where he was and doesn’t find him. “Chris?” Victor squints, seeing him pushing through a crowd of people. Victor shrugs, not really caring.

Victor walks into the crowd of dancing people, and he loves this, always has loved dancing. He feels the music in his bones, and he grins wickedly as both men and women want to dance with him. He chooses a man with bright blonde hair, and he settles with him, dancing to a song that he’s never heard.

After a few minutes, the man leans forward and whispers, “Do you want to get out of here?”

Victor considers it for a moment, but eventually, he just laughs and pulls away. “Not particularly, actually. I’m having a lot of fun.”

He switches partners then. He’s dancing with an Andorian, then with a Betazoid, then an Orion, and Victor loves this so so so much.

Eventually though, he gets bored enough to either seek out some alcohol or Chris, but he leaves the dancefloor nonetheless.

He wonders vaguely if Katsuki is alone, _not_ having fun wherever he is, while Victor is having all the fun in the world at a party he wasn’t even directly invited to. Laughing to himself, he scours the crowds of people, looking for the familiar stench of sexual aura that usually comes from his best friend at these kinds of events.

Instead, he’s suddenly holding up an armful of—

Well, speak of the devil and he shall arrive.

Katsuki is looking down at him, apologetic expression for a brief moment before it turns into horror and disgust. Victor just looks up at him, endlessly amused. (Also, a little annoyed since Yuuri is still straddling him.)

“Are you going to get off of me?” he asks when Katsuki never moves.

Katsuki blushes, but instantly jumps off of him. Victor scowls at him, but stands up as well, brushing off his clothes. Katsuki eyes the movement and scoffs.

“You’re that worried about your clothes? There wasn’t even anything on you.”

Victor scowls again. “There was you.”

Katsuki flushes, looking away for a moment. Victor wonders why he’s here.

“What are you even doing here?” Katsuki asks, meeting Victor’s gaze again.

( _He has pretty eyes_ , he thinks suddenly.)

“I was invited. What about you?”

“I was… also invited.”

“Hmm.”

Victor thinks they’ll leave it at that when Katsuki doesn’t respond, and he turns to walk away, but then Katsuki’s blurting out, “Why do you have to be such a dick to me?”

It’s clear to Victor, in that singular moment, that Yuuri Katsuki is drunk. He smiles despite himself, and turns back around to face him, raising his eyebrows at him.

“You’re mean to me too, you know,” is what he says in the end.

Katsuki purses his lips. “Yeah, but you are _too_.”

“Well, then.”

Victor doesn’t know what Katsuki wants. He also doesn’t know what to expect from the other man since he’s seemingly much more vocal when he’s drunk.

“Do you speak Russian?”

Victor frowns. “I do, yes.”

“Can you say something in Russian?”

Obviously, Katsuki is very drunk. He wouldn’t even be talking to Victor if he wasn’t. He’d just be glaring at him from afar.

“No,” Victor answers, amused.

Katsuki frowns, as if he wasn’t expecting that answer. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“I just don’t.”

“Oh.”

“Indeed.”

Suddenly, Katsuki is leaning forward, and Victor has to grab onto his arms to keep the other man upright. “Your last name is a mouthful.”

“Okay.”

“Not that that’s a bad thing.”

Victor isn’t sure why Katsuki has to be so close to tell him this.

“Okay,” he repeats.

Katsuki suddenly, abruptly, quickly pulls away and sighs loudly. “I’m drunk,” he declares.

Victor realizes that he’s smiling before he can help it. “Obviously,” is all he says.

“I’m going now.”

“Okay.”

“Bye, Victor.”

Victor is momentarily stunned at the use of his name, considering it has to be the first time Katsuki’s ever called him that. He watches as Katsuki drunkenly walks through the crowd, looking for somebody, it seems.

“Bye, Yuuri,” he finds himself saying.

(He’s being ridiculous. This is stupid.)

Sighing, he goes back to looking for Chris again.

He walks around for a good ten minutes before finally, he catches sight of Chris’s hair. He’s talking to somebody in a secluded room, it seems, and Victor starts walking toward him quickly.

As he gets nearer to them, he can hear their conversation better, and Victor momentarily wonders how he should announce his presence.

“So, he likes Victor?”

Victor comes to an abrupt stop, just outside the doorway.

It’s Chris that had asked the question, and now that Victor can see inside, he notices that he’s talking to both Leo de la Iglesia and Phichit.

“Yeah, he’s liked him for a long time apparently,” Phichit answers. Victor frowns. _Who? Who are they talking about? Somebody likes him? Why is that such a big deal?_

Chris laughs loudly and obnoxiously, obviously loving the situation, and Victor bites the inside of his lip. “I heard the rumor, but I didn’t think it was _true_.”

Leo laughs this time too. “Well, it is.”

Chris laughs again. “Imagine _that_. Yuuri Katsuki having a crush on Victor Nikiforov. Victor would have a _field_ day.”

Victor feels his breath catch.

_What?!_

(Katsuki has a crush on him? There’s no way that he has a crush on him! He doesn’t even like him! But maybe… _no_. There’s no way. There’s no way no way no _way._ )

“Are you going to tell Victor?” Phichit suddenly asks nervously. Victor could see why he’d be nervous. Katsuki is his best friend after all.

Chris just shakes his head. “Nah. I’m afraid that Victor would probably explode if he heard about it. Plus, he has a project coming up, and he needs to focus on that.”

Victor briefly thinks that’s a lame excuse not to tell him. He wouldn’t _explode_ , and some _man_ wouldn’t distract him from his project. _Especially_ if that man is Yuuri Katsuki.

Leo laughs again. “I’m sure he’ll hear about it eventually. Either from the rumor or from Yuuri himself, right?”

Phichit shakes his head. Victor vaguely feels bad about eavesdropping, but he also doesn’t care considering that what they’re talking about involves him.

“No way. Yuuri would never confess. We all know how much Victor doesn’t like him. It’d be embarrassing, and Yuuri’s too scared that Victor would make fun of him for it.”

Victor can’t help but scoff at that. But after a second later, he frowns, considering it.

_Is that why Katsuki asked him earlier why he was so mean to him?_

Victor shakes his head, not wanting to accept the idea that he’s been so mean to another human being that the other person doesn’t even want to confess to him because they’re afraid he’d _make fun of them_.

But but but Victor _has_ been that mean. He _has_ made fun of Katsuki, but but but it was never with actual _meaning_. He’s just so jealous, so competitive… he didn’t mean to _hurt_ the other man.

Victor, deciding that he’s done with feeling like a complete piece of shit, walks in. The room goes quiet for a few seconds before Chris is bounding over to him, throwing an arm over his shoulder. He smells like beer.

“Victor! I was wondering where you are! Are you having fun?”

 _I was_ , he thinks petulantly.

“Yeah. I’m a bit tired though. I think I was going to head home. Do you want to leave?”

Chris looks back at Leo and Phichit, and Victor feels his stomach drop at the thought of Katsuki again. He forces a smile on his face.

“Hey,” he says.

They both smile at him, but it’s still a little awkward, and Victor doesn’t want to be here anymore. He turns to look at Chris again, who’s acting like nothing is wrong.

“So?”

Chris smiles at him. “Yeah, sure! Let’s go. I think I’ve drunk enough anyway. I can tell because I’m starting to think you look a little _too_ hot in those pants, Vic.”

Victor, used to Chris’s drunk flirting, just sends a strained smile to the other two men.

“Well, we’ll be leaving now. Thank you for putting up with him.”

“No problem,” Leo says happily.

And then they’re leaving, and if Victor finds his gaze on Katsuki drunkenly dancing in the corner of the room then whatever.

It doesn’t matter anyway.

He lets Chris talk his ears off and tries to forget about Katsuki straddling him earlier.

 

 

Yuuri’s mortified. He can’t believe he’s drunk, and he can’t believe he was drunk when he encountered his _nemesis._

He needs to drink more to forget this ever happened.

Grabbing another beer, he scurries off to a corner of the room, downing it too quickly as he sways his hips to the annoyingly loud music.

He thinks about Nikiforov’s amused gaze on his, and _ugh ugh ugh._

He takes another large sip.

What seems like three thousand hours later, he hears a voice ask, “Yuuri?”

He looks to his right, seeing Mila there. He immediately smiles. He loves loves loves Mila. She’s so awesome.

“Mila!” he exclaims.

“Where’s Victor?” she asks, smirking. Yuuri freezes. What?

“What?” he asks.

She rolls her eyes. “Oh, come _on._ We all know about his big crush on you. It’s spreading like crazy throughout the party. Have you really not heard?”

Yuuri thinks that maybe she’s drunk too. Or maybe he’s hallucinating all of this. Or maybe he’s _dead_. He gasps at the thought of leaving Phichit alone in life. He’d _die_ without him.

“Yuuri?” she asks again. He looks back at her, suddenly remembering again what she just lied about.

“What are you talking about?”

“Victor? His crush. On you?”

“He doesn’t have a crush on me. He doesn’t even like me. He _glares_ at me!”

She laughs, and pats his back. “Oh, Yuuri. Haven’t you learned that some people show their affection in different ways?”

Yuuri frowns at her suspiciously, thinking about all the moments he’s looked up and seen Victor giving him death stares. That doesn’t seem like ‘affection’ to him….

He shakes his head. “Are you okay, Mila?”

She looks at him strangely for a moment. “Of course I am.”

“You’re not drunk or anything? Or high? You’re absolutely okay?”

“Yuuri, I think out of the two of us, you’re the one that’s drunk,” she says.

Yuuri knows she’s right about that, but she _cannot_ be right about the other _lie_ she just said.

She rolls her eyes again. She’s pointing at somebody suddenly. “Phichit is over there by the way. If you wanted to know. See you later, Yuuri. Be safe.” Yuuri follows her gaze, and indeed, sees Phichit.

He just shakes his head, amused that Mila would come and lie to him like that, and walks over to Phichit. He’s talking to Leo.

“Phichit~” he greets, immediately draping over him. Phichit turns to him, and Yuuri’s smile drops when he sees the “I know something you don’t” expression. Oh no.

“Yuuri! Victor _likes you_! Like… he has a _crush_ on you!”  

Yuuri immediately feels himself sober up. “No, he doesn’t, Phichit.”

“He _does_! I heard a rumor from somebody else, and I went to look for Chris, and I asked _Chris_ , and he was all like “ _how do you know about this_ ” and and _and then_ I asked _Leo_ because apparently _Victor_ once told _Leo_ at another party! Isn’t that right, Leo?”

“He’s right. He really does have a crush on you, Yuuri.”

Yuuri scoffs. “He _doesn’t_.

“He does!”

“No, he doesn’t!”

“Yes, he _does_ ,” Phichit stresses.

“I think you’re drunk, Phichit. Let’s go home.”

Phichit rolls his eyes. “Yuuri, you’re literally slurring your words. _You’re_ drunk. But maybe I am too. But who cares! Victor freaking _Nikiforov_ has a crush on you! It all makes sense!”

Yuuri ignores him. “Bye, Leo.”

“He has a crush on you, Yuuri,” Phichit tries again as they leave.

Yuuri feels the world spinning. “He doesn’t.”

They argue the entire way home (it’s a miracle they managed to even get home, honestly), and when Phichit collapses into his bed, playing with his PADD a bit before finally going to bed. Yuuri does the same, wrapping the sheets around him.

(Victor doesn’t have a crush on him Victor doesn’t have a crush on him _Nikiforov_ doesn’t have a crush on him Nikiforov doesn’t have a crush on him Nikiforov doesn’t have a crush on him Nikiforov doesn’t—)

That night, he dreams about Victor Nikiforov having a crush on him.

 

 

**[INTERMISSION:**

**THREE DAYS AGO]**

 

Chris wonders why Phichit wants to talk to him. He cracks a smile when he sees Victor petulantly placing himself against the wall to wait for them.

“So… what’s up?” he asks Phichit.

“Yuuri is driving me insane,” is what he says and not at all what Chris expected.

But he can guess what he’s driving him insane about. “Let me guess… he complains about Victor too much?”

“ _Yes_.”

“I feel that. Sometimes I wonder if Victor’s most said word is a bitter ‘ _Katsuki.’_ He never shuts up about him.”

“Yuuri wanted me to talk to you.”

“About?”

“Not sure, but when trying to figure out what to talk to you about, I thought that _maybe_ we could play a prank on them for all the shit they put us through?”

Chris is surprised to hear Phichit cuss, let alone suggest pulling a prank on their two best friends. But he’s not exactly _against_ what he’s hearing.

“Sounds fun,” he smiles. “What do you want to do?”

“Well, I was in my Earth History class and we were learning about Shakespeare….”

“And?” Chris holds back a laugh when he notices in the corner of his eye that Victor has pulled aside some poor girl to talk to.

Phichit grins. “Well, there’s this one play he wrote. I can’t remember the title, but _basically_ , all these friends agree to prank their two friends that hate each other.”

“Okay?”

“Well, they told each of their friends that the other had a _crush_ on them.”

Chris nods thoughtfully. “So you want us to tell Victor that Yuuri has a crush on him and Yuuri that Victor has a crush on _him_?”

“Yes!”

Chris laughs. He loves the sound of this. He sees Victor straining to hear what they’re talking about, and laughs again. Phichit notices Victor as well, and they step away a bit.

“So, how do you want to do this?”

“I’m not too sure yet. I know there’s a party in three days, and maybe we could initiate the plan there? We can invite some of our friends along to convince them as well? I’ll message you more information tonight. But you’re willing, right?”

Chris grins. “Of course I am. It’s a harmless prank. It’ll teach them to shut up about the other too.”

Phichit laughs, relieved. “Okay. I already have your comm number so I’ll message you when I plan it out more.”

He turns to leave, but then Chris can’t help but ask, “Phichit? What happened to the characters in the play?”

Phichit laughs again. “They fell in love, actually. But I’m not really thinking that’ll happen. I just want them to stop being at each other’s throats all the time.”

Chris nods, glancing at Victor. Victor looks away.

 _In love, huh?_ he thinks.

He looks back at Phichit, and grins. “Alright. Text me later, okay?”

Phichit nods, and walks off.

He turns to walk towards Victor, and he has to fight back a smile when he sees Victor looking at him, obviously trying to figure him out.

“What was that about?” Victor asks.

Chris smiles. “Nothing important.”

It’s obvious Victor doesn’t believe him.

He doesn’t care.

 

 

**[TWO DAYS AGO]**

 

Chris receives more information from Phichit, and the comm numbers from Mila and Leo, who also want to get in on the plan, it seems. Even Seung-gil is willing, but it seems he might actually be sick and unable to go to the party.

They start a group message and they plan everything out to the last detail.

There’s a moment where Victor catches Chris off guard however, asking who he’s messaging, but Chris thinks he sort of covered it up by saying he was messaging someone he was interested in. Plus, it seems Victor doesn’t even really care. Chris adores him for that.

Tomorrow, Phichit will convince Yuuri to go to the party, and Chris doesn’t even have to worry about ‘convincing’ Victor, more like just ‘asking.’

He lets out a chuckle at the thought of them thinking the other has a crush on them.

 

**[ONE DAY AGO]**

 

It seems Phichit has successfully invited him.

 

**[AFTER THE PARTY]**

 

 _It worked_ , Chris thinks to himself later on that night, Victor already sleeping. Phichit sent him a message saying that Yuuri may say he doesn’t believe it, but he’s definitely thinking about it. Chris grins to himself and glances at Victor sleeping.

_In love, huh?_

(He knows Phichit isn’t even considering that, but Chris somehow thinks that could happen very easily indeed.)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> much love!!! I adore you and I adore comments :) xxxx
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr [here](http://literallynothingbutvictuuri.tumblr.com/)  
> 


	2. Repudiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> repudiation- (noun) rejection of a proposal or idea, denial of the truth or validity of something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW! This took me FOREVER to update- I'm so sorry! 
> 
> I've gotten so incredibly busy in the past couple of weeks, and honestly all of that combined with my own mental state has been incredibly hard for me. 
> 
> But here it is~ the update! I hope you enjoy it!

Phichit is already gone for the day when Yuuri wakes up with a jolt. He takes in his surrounding, and _yes, Yuuri, you’re completely alone_ , he has to remind himself. Because in his dream… he was definitely _not_ alone.

Yuuri has to admit dreaming about Victor Nikiforov confessing his love for him was everything including disturbing. But what was even more disturbing was _his_ reaction.

Yuuri sighs, shaking his head. He wouldn’t react like that in real life. There’s no way. His dream self has absolutely no basis for his real self. Why is he even thinking about this?

Glancing at the time, he notes that he’s already slept nearly half the day away. He sighs again. Life is a travesty and _Salutatorian_ Victor Nikiforov is the sole cause of that.

He grabs his PADD and brings up his planner. Shit, he almost forgot about that test for his Advanced Nav class.

Yuuri blushes remembering Dream—no, _Nightmare_ —Nikiforov, but he quickly pulls up his textbook on his PADD and starts studying instead.

He studies until he forgets all about the other annoying man.

 

 

“Chris?”

Chris looks up from his PADD. “What?”

Victor peers at him. He has to say it. He wants to say it. He needs answers. Just say it.

“Nothing.”

Chris frowns at him, but doesn’t question it, returning to his PADD (probably to pester people into going skinny dipping with him).

Victor should have just asked him.

He looks back at his own PADD, scrolling aimlessly as what he overheard just last night rings in his head.

How could Katsuki have… _feelings_ towards him? He doesn’t even _like_ Victor.

Victor frowns at that. He can’t even remember a time where they weren’t rivals, weren’t always at each other’s throats in the rankings, weren’t sending glares at each other every time they saw each other. Victor can’t remember ever having even _considered_ ‘liking’ Yuuri Katsuki.

Victor stops scrolling, going still.

There’s no reason to dislike Katsuki except for the horrible fact that Katsuki is the current valedictorian and Victor… isn’t.

But besides that? Victor barely even _knows_ Katsuki.

Right?

Katsuki is… determined. Hard on himself. Doubtful of compliments and accepting of criticisms. Katsuki is… a storm. A calm storm. Over an ocean. With every color dancing on the waves. With—Victor’s thoughts come to an abrupt stop as he shakes his head, appalled at himself.

What is he even _thinking_ about? Katsuki is a storm? What does that even _mean_?

“Victor.”

Victor blinks, looking up at Chris.

“Yeah?” he asks. Chris looks amused.

“You okay?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, you’re holding your PADD upside down so… you know… just wondering.”

Victor’s eyes widen at the comment and looking down, he realizes that Chris is right. Of course he’s right.

“Ah,” he says. “I see.” He looks back up at Chris who looks as if he’s trying not to laugh. Victor rolls his eyes. “I’m just distracted.”

“You aren’t one to get very distracted.”

“Yes, I am.”

Chris shakes his head. “Not when you’re supposed to be _studying_. Weren’t you all up in arms over your project? You seemed pretty excited to do it this weekend. Nerd.”

Victor almost forgot about that.

“Oh, yeah, well… I’m actually getting started right now.”

“Hmm?”

Victor turns his PADD so it’s the right way up, pulling up a document. “See?”

Chris isn’t even looking at him anymore. “Whatever, nerd. I’m going swimming tonight. Do you want to come?”

Victor shakes his head. “Studying, remember?”

“Fucking nerd.”

Victor just laughs, Yuuri Katsuki long gone from his thoughts.

 

 

Victor doesn’t even want to go to the class that he has with Katsuki. Over the weekend, he thought about the other man much more than he preferred, and now he just feels guilty for overhearing anything at all. Damn it all.

Victor doesn’t even know what to expect when he walks in. He supposes he expects to see Katsuki, feel guilty, and awkwardly try to avoid him for the rest of his life. Or confront him. Does Katsuki really think so ill of him?

Is Victor really _such_ an asshole?

He finally walks through the door, prepared to look no don’t look no just act normally act like you don’t know anything just look at where are you’re going ju—Katsuki isn’t even here yet.

Victor nearly stops walking at that.

He frowns at where Katsuki is usually seated and already ready to start when Victor usually arrives, but the seat is simply… empty.

He walks over to his own seat, sitting down slowly.

Where is he? Is he sick or something? Katsuki isn’t one to miss class.

When Dr. Feltsman walks in, Katsuki still isn’t here. Victor frowns, but after another couple minutes and Feltsman announcing that class is starting, he simply assumes the other man is sick. Victor looks down, bringing out his PADD as he shoves away all thoughts about his Bitter Rival.

“Katsuki, you aren’t one to be late.”

Victor’s gaze snaps up, and looking behind him, he sees him.

Katsuki is blushing as he stumbles over to his seat. He’s ignoring Victor completely.

Clearing his throat, he finally says, “Sorry, Dr. Feltsman. Someone needed help on the way and… well….”

Dr. Feltsman just shakes his head, but doesn’t say anything else. He quickly resumes the lecture again, but Victor isn’t paying attention.

Katsuki has his head down and he’s not meeting the gaze of anybody. He’s not even looking at Feltsman. And Victor doesn’t know why he’s looking at Katsuki. Why isn’t _he_ paying attention?

He turns his gaze back to the lecture, but after fidgeting for a minute, he looks back.

Katsuki is already looking at him.

Victor feels his heart beating fast fast fast and he looks away quickly.

He feels ridiculous. He feels ridiculous for being so interested and he feels ridiculous for feeling so guilty. He doesn’t even really _know_. Nothing has even been confirmed and yet he’s acting like this? What’s _wrong_ with him?

Victor wants so desperately to glance back at him. He just wants to see if Katsuki is looking at him too.

(Why does it even matter?)

But how could Katsuki actually like him at all? He’s always been so mean to Victor. Victor just doesn’t see _how_. Victor doesn’t think he’s _awful_ at knowing when somebody is attracted to him so how come he’s so surprised about Katsuki?

(There’s no way that Katsuki is attracted to him.

Right?)

The entire class continues on in agony, and Victor has to refrain from glancing at the Notoriously Evil Man Who May Just Be Attracted To Him.

Eventually, class is dismissed, and when Victor finally lets himself glance at Katsuki again, he sees him rushing quickly out the door.

And he’s gone once again, and Victor isn’t any less confused.  

 

 

“Phichit,” Yuuri immediately whines as he closes their door behind him.

Phichit looks up from his PADD as Yuuri collapses into his bed, burying his face into his pillow.

“Yuuri?”

“I’m so awkward, Phichit,” Yuuri explains. Phichit doesn’t anything and Yuuri pushes himself up to face him. Yuuri glares at him. “This is your fault.”

Phichit frowns. “Is this about Victor?”

“ _Yes_.”

“What happened?”

“Well, ever since you _lied_ to me about how Nikiforov likes me… I’m… I’m just fucking _awkward_!”

Phichit sighs. “I’m not lying to you, Yuuri. He really does like you!”

Yuuri peers at him distrustfully. “Liar,” he mutters. Phichit scoffs and throws his pillow at him.

“I’m not lying!” he exclaims again. “Besides, if you thought I was lying then why were you so awkward around him?”

Yuuri throws the pillow back at him. “I don’t know!”

“Well, did you talk to him at all?”

“No… no, we just made eye contact. A lot.”

“See?! He likes you!”

“That doesn’t mean he likes me, Phichit! It just means it was awkward!”

Phichit sighs. “But why _now_? I’m sure he’s aware that the rumors had spread around at the party and he’s probably embarrassed over it. Don’t be too cruel to him, Yuuri.”

Yuuri gapes at him. “If I’m mean to him it’s because he’s being mean to _me_.”

Phichit rolls his eyes. “I wonder if the two of you could go a day just being _nice_ to each other.”

Yuuri opens his mouth to say something to that, but nothing comes out. He frowns, trying to imagine a world where Nikiforov is nice to him. Yuuri’s seen him around other people and he’s always so friendly to them… could they ever be friends?

Yuuri blinks and shakes his head. No. He’s being ridiculous.

He never does get the chance to respond because Phichit is already asking, “What are you doing tomorrow? After your classes?”

Yuuri thinks. “Well, I’ll probably go to the study area on campus or something. I need to study for my test for advanced navigation.”

Phichit hums. “Nevermind.”

“What? Did you want to do something?”

“Sort of, but I just remembered I have something to do too for my comm class so we can do it later. I just wanted to go out and eat with you or something.”

Yuuri smiles. “Aww, we can do that any time, Phichit.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Yuuri frowns, but doesn’t say anything else.

 

 

The next day, Yuuri stays true to his word and goes to the study room after his last lecture ends. There are dozens of study areas all over the campus, but Yuuri’s favorite is always the one that few people actually go to.

When he arrives and sees that there are only a few random other cadets, he smiles, satisfied that nobody will bother him while he’s studying.

He’s only in there for a couple minutes, a few blissful and not at all stressful moments, before he sees fucking Victor Nikiforov walking in.

Yuuri freezes, sighs dramatically, and then wonders how he somehow has the shittiest luck in the entire damn universe.

Nikiforov hasn’t seen him yet (thankfully) and Yuuri looks around to look for the best place to hide. If he waits until Nikiforov sits down or leans down to grab something or is looking away, he could easily just stand up and sneak away. Right? Would that work? Yuuri watches the other annoying man sit down and is about to run for it before he catches himself and stills.

Why is he hiding? Nikiforov doesn’t like him at _all_ so it’s not like he’ll come up to Yuuri and bother him. If there’s one thing Yuuri can reluctantly compliment Nikiforov on, it’s that he’s also serious when it comes to his studies.

Yuuri sighs once again, settling back into his chair. He just won’t look at him at all. He’ll completely ignore him. He just needs to act like he always does.

He glares at Nikiforov.

Or at least he _tries_ to. For some reason, he can’t bring up anything as strong as his “Nikiforov Glare” and he frowns at himself. He tries making another expression (a sneer?) and just as he’s failed that one too and tries to move on to a disgusted expression, Nikiforov makes eye contact with him.

Yuuri goes absolutely still, eyes wide, and he watches in shock as a noticeable blush spreads across Nikiforov’s face.

What the fuck?

Yuuri immediately looks away and does his best to not glance back at him. Why was he _blushing_? Since when does Victor Nikiforov _blush_?

Yuuri starts to think that death would be the best option here.

For about ten minutes, Yuuri is successful in ignoring him. He’s studying just studying not thinking about Vic- _Nikiforov_ at all nope just studying studying studying studying.

And then he accidentally looks up again. Victor isn’t looking at him, but Yuuri still finds himself going red. He tries to look away, he has to look away, what the fuck is he doing just _staring_ at the man?

A small voice in his head wonders what it’d be like if Nikiforov _did_ like him.

Because… because what if it’s true? What if Phichit really _wasn’t_ lying to him? What if, for some unknown reason to Yuuri, Victor Nikiforov _is_ attracted to him?

But Yuuri frowns then because he remembers who he is and he remembers everything he doesn’t like about himself.

He looks back down at his PADD.

No way would Nikiforov like him. No way would he be _attracted_ to him. Not with Yuuri… not with Yuuri being the way he is. He isn’t anything special.

Why would Victor Nikiforov, self-proclaimed Best Future Captain To Exist, have a crush on him?

And _why_ is Yuuri actually thinking about this?

He can’t stop himself from looking back at him, and this time, Nikiforov is staring straight at him. Yuuri thinks Nikiforov will break the gaze, but he doesn’t. His eyes widened a bit in surprise, but Nikiforov never looks away.

Yuuri doesn’t understand why he isn’t looking away. Embarrassed, Yuuri looks back down at his notes on his PADD.

He gulps.

What the fuck is wrong with him?

He needs to _study_. He came here to _study_ , not gawk at the fact that Nikiforov is also in the damn room with him. It’s never bothered him before, and it sure as hell won’t bother him now.

Suddenly, his PADD chimes, alerting him that he has a message, and he jumps, startled.

It’s Phichit.

 **Phichit:** _yuuri i just overheard chris and victor talking and i think victor is going where you are right now you should ask if he has a crush on you!!!!_

 **Yuuri:** _why would I do that, Phichit? also, stop eavesdropping. It’s a bad habit._

 **Phichit:** _but Yuuuuurrriiii_

Yuuri rolls his eyes.

 **Yuuri:** _he’s already here and I’m studying anyway. It’s not a big deal. Also, he doesn’t have a crush on me._

He glances at Nikiforov, unable to help himself, but he isn’t looking back at him anymore. However, almost as if he can read his mind, Nikiforov looks up and meets Yuuri’s gaze once again.

Yuuri blushes and looks back down. Fuck.

 **Yuuri:** _I don’t think he has a crush on me. he’s just studying. we both are. or at least, I’m TRYING to._

Phichit never responds and Yuuri frowns again. He figures he just got busy with something. Sighing, he goes back to studying and determinedly ignoring The Other Man.

He studies for another hour, but after thirteen more awkward glances, Yuuri decides he’s studied enough.

After grabbing his PADD, he quickly rushes to the door, and of course, _of course_ , he drops his PADD _just_ as he’s walking passed Nikiforov.

He curses in Japanese, but Nikiforov is already picking it up for him. Yuuri blinks. Victo-Nikiforov is holding it out for him. Yuuri takes it.

“Thank you,” he says, chest tight. He doesn’t know what to do. What’s going on with him?

Victo- _Nikiforov_ smiles at him for the briefest of moments. “No problem.”

Yuuri quickly leaves, heart racing in his chest.

What the fuck.

 

 

Victor has never felt more confused in his life.

He stays in the study room (why did he come to study again? Didn’t Chris suggest this to him? What is he even studying for?) for another two hours until his next class, but he’s barely done anything when he eventually leaves.

He thinks about Katsuki’s blushes, so red red red red all over his face, expression, cheeks and nose, and Victor feels so confused.

Why was Katsuki looking at him so much anyway?

Was Chris right? Does Katsuki actually have a crush on him?

When he arrives at his next class, he sits in his seat, stuck on autopilot. He barely even notices when class starts.

Logically… it’s the only explanation, right? Right? With how much Katsuki was blushing, looking at him, and with how embarrassed he seemed when Victor picked up his PADD for him… does _Yuuri_ have a crush on him?

He can’t focus at all in class, and Victor wonders the exact color shade that Katsuki’s blushes were.

 

 

Yuuri wonders if the universe truly hates him. There’s no other possible explanation for everything that’s been happening to him. There’s no other possible reason behind _why_ he’s seeing Nikiforov nearly five times a damn day in the weirdest places.

He’s simply on his way to study with Seung-gil, but then Seung-gil asked if he could pick them both up some coffee, and after _just_ seeing Nikiforov _two_ _hours ago_ in the damn _restroom_ , he’s in this random café too?

Yuuri sighs, accepting his dreadful fate as he walks in and stands in line. Nikiforov notices him immediately from where he’s sitting, and Yuuri wants to laugh at him, but he also just wants him to go away.

He doesn’t know what he feels about anything anymore and he just wants some time alone from Nikiforov, but the damn universe can’t even grant him _that_.

Life sucks.

He’s in the café for nearly ten minutes, and for all nearly ten of those minutes, he exists in pure agony. When his hands are safely wrapped around the comforting heat of the cups, he rushes out of the café, ignoring the way Nikiforov’s eyes had followed him all the way to the door.

Life _sucks_.

 

 

“Phichit,” he groans.

Phichit doesn’t respond.

“Phichit,” he groans again.

No response.

“Phichittttt, life sucksss,” he whines.

“You’re so dramatic, Yuuri.”

“You’d know! And I’m only dramatic because I ran into him _four_ times today. _Four_.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Yuuri doesn’t understand why Phichit isn’t taking advantage of the situation and teasing him about Nikiforov, but he _does_ know that he isn’t getting any sort of satisfaction from complaining about the Evil Stalker so he finally just shuts up.

He thinks about trying to take the Starfleet exams two years earlier than planned and wonders if he could pass and just leave this damn planet thereby Never Having To See Victor Nikiforov Again, but then again, knowing his luck, Nikiforov would have the same damn idea and end up being the captain of his ship.

 

 

Victor is going insane.

Throughout the week, he’s awkwardly encountered Katsuki in the strangest of places and every time, Yuuri was blushing while simultaneously trying to glare at him.

Victor loses it when he runs straight into Katsuki in a neighboring city, and he loses it even more when he runs into him _again_ in a random park that Victor likes to sometimes visit to watch the dogs.

Each and every time is more awkward than the last, and by the time they’ve run into each other approximately seventeen times, Victor wonders if fate is trying to tell him something.

After (thankfully) going several hours without even laying eyes on the other man, he tells Chris about his experience seeing Katsuki everywhere.

He does it both to test his reaction, but also because he needs some advice from his best friend. Chris seems to freeze for a moment, but then he just laughs.

“What? Is seeing your declared nemesis everywhere _not_ motivating you to work even harder?”

Victor wants to reply with that it actually is, but it _isn’t_. It’s, honestly, distracting as hell, and he wants it to stop. He thinks about just confessing to Chris that he overheard what he said at the party, but he doesn’t want Chris to hang this over his head until Chris fucks up later. He also doesn’t want Chris to have the satisfaction of Victor wondering about Katsuki’s feelings.

Victor just sighs and doesn’t respond at all. Chris doesn’t seem to care or even notice.

If this is fate speaking to him… then maybe Katsuki _does_ have a crush on him.

Now how the hell does Victor feel about _that_? 

 

 

Yuuri wonders if maybe he should just stay in his room for the rest of his horrible life because if not, he’ll just run into Victor fucking Nikiforov again and again and again. And nobody wants that. Especially Yuuri.

 

 

Phichit has been acting suspiciously all week, and in between the times where Yuuri tries to stay far far away from Nikiforov yet still ends up in a situation with him _anyway_ , Yuuri has also been wondering whether or not to call Phichit out.

Yuuri finally gives in, and amused, he wonders if Phichit truly thinks that Yuuri hasn’t noticed how he’s been acting recently. But Yuuri can’t care anymore. He’s going to get to the bottom of this, whether Phichit likes it or not.

They’re in the gym (kill him) when Yuuri finally traps him.

“Phichit.”

“Yuuri?”

“Why have you been acting so strangely?”

Phichit glances at him. “I haven’t.”

“Yes, you have,” Yuuri says. He can tell Phichit is going to say otherwise again so he glares at him. “Tell me the truth.”

Phichit sighs. “It has to do with Victor, but I know you won’t believe me.”

Yuuri just stares at him. “I won’t… but tell me anyway.”

“He really does have a crush on you.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes, but goes along with it. “Uh huh, really? Why?”

“He told me.”

“He _told_ you?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you expect me to believe that?”

“He really did tell me!”

“Uh huh.”

Phichit suddenly looks incredibly guilty. “But he… he told me not to tell you.”

“Why would he tell you in the first place, Phichit?” sighs Yuuri. Yuuri can’t believe his friend is doing this to him.

Phichit looks down, embarrassed. “Well, like. He came up to me in Xenolinguistics and said “I heard you heard about me liking Yuuri. Chris told me.”

“Uh huh.”

“And I was… you know… _scared_ he was going to do something to me, but then he just sighed really sadly and asked me to not tell you because he wanted me to keep it a secret. And… yeah, that’s pretty much what happened.”

Yuuri stares at him. “And yet here you are. Telling me.”

Phichit blushes. “You’re my best friend! Plus, I had kind of already told you. Wait… does that mean you finally believe me?”

Yuuri is quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he finally says. “No. Yes. I don’t know. No.”

Phichit just smiles at him. “Please don’t tell Victor I told you. I honestly do feel pretty bad about it, and I’m still scared he’ll ruin my reputation or something.”

Yuuri just rolls his eyes. “The only one that could ruin your reputation is yourself, Phichit. But I wouldn’t worry about that anyway. Everyone loves you.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Phichit smiles widely, and Yuuri smiles to himself too, happy to see his friend so happy over such obvious information. A few minutes later, they finally stop gossiping and go back to exercising (kill him, seriously) and Yuuri exercises and exercises and exercises and yet he still can’t get Phichit’s words out of his head.

Damn.

 

 

Victor lets out a relieved sigh when he gets back into his room.

Chris is staring at him, obviously amused.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“You know what’s wrong?”

“Oh, is this about Yuuri again?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Victor grits out.

Chris laughs. “Dude, you have to calm down about Yuuri. You’re usually pretty mature when it comes to situations like this, but Yuuri always drives you up the fucking wall.”

“You would be the same way if you kept running into your enemy all week!”

Chris laughs again. “How is he your _enemy_ , Victor? Seriously? Do you even hear yourself right now? You sound like a kid.”

Victor wants to disagree with him, but he’s _right._ And Victor honestly _isn’t_ usually like this. He isn’t one to let his emotions take him over completely, but around Katsuki… he can’t _help it_.

He just makes him feel so annoyed.

It’s annoying.

“What should I do?”

Chris doesn’t say anything. Victor sits down on his bed.

“I should just talk to him, shouldn’t I? I really am being a child.”

Chris snorts. “It took you long enough.”

Victor wants to be angry at himself, wants to be angry at Katsuki for making him lose all rationality, but he just feels _sorry_.

“Do you know a place where I won’t run into him? I don’t know. Some place that can help calm me down. I have some things to think about.”

Chris considers his question for a moment before he finally says, “Have you thought about trying one of the observatories? Specifically, the smaller one?”

“The smaller one?”

“Yeah? The one on the east side?”

“There’s an observatory over there?”

“Yeah? Have you never gone there? Even _I’ve_ been there and I’m nowhere near as fucking nerdy as you are.”

Victor frowns. “Is that observatory quiet?”

Chris snorts. “Probably. Nobody really goes there much since it’s kind of lame and far away from all the main shit on campus, you know?”

Victor nods. “That makes sense, yeah. I’m going to go there then. Thanks, Chris.”

Chris smirks at him. “No problem, Victor. I’m here for you, man.”

Victor nods. “Yeah, yeah, I know you are.”

Victor grabs his bag and turns to leave again.

“Have fun,” Chris says right before the door closes.

Victor just nods to himself.

 

 

**[INTERMISSION:**

**ONE WEEK AGO]**

 

Chris and Phichit see them before they see the pair of them.

“Hey guys!” Phichit greets as he slides into the seat next to Mila. Mila rolls her eyes, but smiles fondly at him. Seung-gil and Leo both look at them too.

“Hey, man,” Leo greets as Chris sits next to him. Chris nods at him.

Seung-gil smiles at both of them, but gets straight to the point. “So, what’s the plan?”

Phichit and Chris glance at each other. Phichit grins widely.

“I think the plan right now should be to force them in places where they have to see each other.”

“So, we’d like… suggest where they can go or if they can go somewhere to buy us something? Like that?” Mila asks. Chris rests his chin in his hand and smirks.

“That sounds great. I know it’s really easy for me to convince Victor to go study and I know where he goes when he feels stressed. And if he has to see Yuuri all week, I’m sure he’ll feel a little more than stressed out.”

Leo laughs, delighted at the aspect of it. His expression turns somber a second later though. “Hey… you don’t think they’ll be _too_ angry at us when they find out, right? I really love being their friends. You and Phichit are really close to them so I’d think they’d forgive you two, but what about us? They’ll forgive us, right?”

Phichit shakes his head, laughing. “Honestly, when they find out, they’ll probably put all the blame on me and Chris. Which we deserve. They aren’t the types to break a friendship over something like that. At least, I know Yuuri isn’t.”

Chris nods. “Victor isn’t like that either. Don’t expect him to not pettily bring it up on occasion, though. That man, I swear.”

Leo nods, relieved.

“So, is that the plan for this week? Are we just going to drive them out of their minds and have them run into each other a lot?” Mila asks.

Phichit nods. “That sounds good to me, right? I know Chris and I will still be pushing the idea that the other has a crush on him, but I guess you three should just focus on being the kind suggestions in their life as to where they should go next.”

Seung-gil nods. “Sounds good. I know I’m seeing Yuuri in a couple of days to study together. I can say something then. Just let me know.”

Both Mila and Leo agree as well.

“Great!” Phichit exclaims. “So right now, the only mission is to try to get them to run into each other as much as humanly possible!”

“Great,” Chris says, smiling easily.

 

 

There are four observatories at Starfleet Academy and the one that Yuuri likes the most is the one that projects space around him as he walks in. It’s also the least popular because the other three observatories are much cooler in terms of what it allows and its technology, but Yuuri loves it so much because it’s such a peaceful place to be, and honestly, he’s glad that most people don’t come here. It makes it a wonderful place to study, and Yuuri is too paranoid to study in one of the dozens of study rooms after so many run-ins with Nikiforov. He also just wants to get away from the whole situation, and this observatory helps him clear his thoughts and sort through his… feelings.

But as fate would fucking have it, he walks in and immediately spots the exact man that Yuuri is trying to escape from.

He stops walking immediately and considers turning around and just leaving. He doesn’t want to deal with this. He cannot _believe_ that Nikiforov is here as well. Is he following Yuuri? Why is he _everywhere_?!

Just as he’s decided to get the fuck out of there, Nikiforov, _of course_ , turns and sees him, and honestly, when Yuuri notices the resigned expression on his face, he wants to laugh because _yeah_ , he thinks, _me too_.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here either,” suddenly says Nikiforov.

Yuuri peers at him for a few seconds, studying the situation, but after deeming it safe, he begrudgingly gets closer to him.

It doesn’t _seem_ like Vict-Nikiforov has a crush on him… _wait, is he blushing?_

Yuuri frowns, remembering how rare it seems it is that Nikiforov blushes, and this isn’t even the first time this week.

“Are you not going to say anything?” Nikiforov—just say Victor—asks.

Yuuri’s frown deepens. “I… I don’t think I have anything to say to you.”

Nikif- _Victor_ huffs. “Fine.”

He looks away and Yuuri still doesn’t say anything. Victor’s studying the observatory, and Yuuri follows his gaze, and he relaxes as he admires the projections of space around them. It’s beautiful being here.

“I didn’t know about this observatory,” Victor suddenly admits.

Yuuri looks back at him, seeing Victor already looking back at him. “You didn’t?”

Victor shakes his head, looking away again. “No,” he says. “I didn’t. Chris suggested this place when I asked him for a place where I would probably not… see you.”

Yuuri nods, understanding his sentiment and reasoning all too well. He looks back at the galaxy-covered walls again.

“It’s my favorite observatory. The other ones are nice. Really _really_ nice, but this one is just… peaceful. It’s my favorite.”

“I can see why,” Victor says smiling, albeit a bit tensely.

Yuuri nods. “I come here a lot actually. To get away. I… also wanted to get away from you. Didn’t really seem to work.”

Victor laughs then and shakes his head. Yuuri looks back at him and is startled to see so much mirth in those blue eyes. “You know… I’ve made several conspiracies as to why we’ve been seeing each other so much this week?”

Yuuri can’t help the quirk of his lips. “Oh? Like what?”

“Well, the first one I thought of was that you were actually planning my assassination.”

“Hey!”

“ _But_ you seemed just as startled to see me each time so then maybe I figured it was because you actually _did_ —” He cuts off abruptly and looks away. Yuuri frowns at him.

“‘Actually did’ what?”

“Nothing.”

Yuuri wants to press the issue, he really does. But he finds that he can’t. And this is nice. This is nicer than it’s ever been. Even nicer than their first time talking to each other. Before it became so rivalry-focused.

Yuuri thinks again about what Phichit repeatedly and repeatedly told him, but Yuuri just can’t see it. He can’t understand how or why. Victor is just too perfect with his perfect face and perfect hair and perfect everything and there is just no _way_ that he has a crush on _him_.

There is no way no way no way and and and and, “Why do you have a crush on me?” is out of his mouth before he can stop himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh! Much to come, much to come~~ 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and comments and kudos are always very much appreciated! 
> 
> Check me out on tumblr [here](http://literallynothingbutvictuuri.tumblr.com)  
> much love to you all! xxxx


	3. Retaliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> retaliation- (noun) to return like for like, counterattack, revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> literally somehow exactly 5 months later im updating 
> 
> im??? so sorry about how long this took ????? i honestly felt really uninspired for a while there and then slowly began writing the third chapter but i wrote about 4k of this today and the rest over the past few months 
> 
> this?? story is so ridiculous what EVEN. i don't?? really know how i feel about this chapter tbh but i don't hate it so that's something i guess
> 
> (why do all my romcom fics somehow turn somewhat into crack? is that me MAKING IT UP? whomst knows)
> 
> uhhhh i don't have much to say that won't spoil something but i published some books and you can check them out @ [diannamorales.com](http://www.diannamorales.com)  
> 

Yuuri wonders how quickly he can run away. More specifically, he wonders how quickly he can run away from _Niki—Victor_. _No, that wouldn’t work._ He knows Victor is a fast runner. Yuuri hasn’t obsessed over his enemy for these past few years to _not_ know this, and now that he’s asked something so stupid _to_ said enemy, Yuuri briefly regrets not participating in those sprinting classes that Phichit wanted him to do with him.

Perhaps if he pushed Victor and then ran for it?

 _He would catch up to me_ , Yuuri thinks pessimistically. He sighs.

Yuuri dares another glance at Victor who, much like one minute ago, is still frozen in place, simply staring at him.

Yuuri frowns. Maybe he wouldn’t even have to run. Maybe he could just leave.

_Good idea. Bye, Vic—_

“What are you talking about?”

Yuuri freezes. He swallows. Damn, why didn’t he sprint off already?

“Phichit… he told me that you have a crush on me.”

Victor’s gaze on him is hard, and Yuuri wants to know what he’s thinking.

“You think that I… I like you?”

Yuuri didn’t expect those words to feel like a slap to his face. He didn't expect to feel his heart speed up and his stomach drop. He didn't expect to feel so hurt by such a stupid response.

He nods nonetheless, cursing Phichit in his head for lying to him and confusing him so horrendously. How will Yuuri _ever_ interact with Victor again now? He probably looks like such an _idiot_.

“I….” Victor says.

“It’s okay I understand I’m sorry for thinking so I’m pretty sure Phichit lied to me I’m so sorry please ignore this and forget this ever happened I honestly don’t even know why I let myself believe you _would_ like me like that let alone like me at _all_. Ignore me. It’s my mistake. I’m so sorry for making this so awkward.”

Victor stares at him, and Yuuri literally wants to _die_ from mortification. Yuuri looks at Victor, and the poor guy seems so _confused._

“… thought you had a crush on me.”

_Wait, what?_

“What?” Yuuri asks.

“So… you _don’t_ … I mean… you _aren’t_ …? Attracted to me… like… like that?”

Yuuri can’t help it. “What?” he asks again.

Victor is staring at him, baffled.

Yuuri doesn’t even want to run away anymore. He just wants to jump off the damn building.

Victor is still looking at him.

“Let me get this clear… you _don’t_ have a crush on me despite me overhearing a rumor that you do, and _you_ thought that _I_ had a crush on _you_ because Phichit… told you?”

Yuuri nods. “You thought I was attracted to you?”

Victor, surprisingly, blushes. “I mean… well, no, well… yes, I guess. Yes? I did. I’m… sorry.”

Yuuri is so confused. “And I thought you had a crush on me.”

Victor nods.

“And you _don’t_ have a crush on me.”

Victor nods again.

“And you thought _I_ had a crush on you.”

Another nod.

“But _I_ don’t have a crush on you.”

No movement.

“But you… _thought_ I did because of a… rumor. Okay, so, where did you hear this rumor?”

“I overheard Chris, Phichit, and Leo at the party saying that you were attracted to me.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“Yes. And why did you think I… liked you?”

Yuuri blushes. “I… I first heard about it from Mila at the party and then recently, Phichit has been trying to convince me all week and we’ve been running into each other so much and I don’t know! He was getting in my head. I _knew_ he was wrong though. Little devil….”

“Why did they think I had a crush on you?”

Yuuri blushes again. “Well… Mila told me the rumor spread around at the party, but honestly I was pretty drunk so she might have said more that I don't remember. And then Phichit told me that you told him that you, well, were attracted to me. And liked me. Like that.”

Yuuri cringes at his childish phrasing, but Victor just frowns again.

“And _I_ overheard Phichit, Chris, and Leo at the party….”

They’re both silent for a moment before the realization finally hits in.

“Wait a second….”

“Are they….”

“Are they _pranking_ us?” Victor finally finishes.

Yuuri scoffs. “Of _course,_ it’s a prank. Of _course,_ Phichit, that _devil cupid_ , would do this.”

Victor sighs and looks at the ceiling.

“So… it was all a lie.”

Yuuri wonders why he didn’t sound particularly happy about that. Did he like knowing that Yuuri might have had a crush on him… a boost to his ego, maybe?

Yuuri decides not to think about it.

“So… why _have_ we been running into each other all week?” Yuuri finally asks.

Victor looks back at him. The color of his eyes startle Yuuri, and Yuuri has to stop a blush.

_There’s literally no reason to be so startled by the color of his eyes, Yuuri. Plus, you already knew what color they were! What’s wrong with you?!_

“Do you think it could have been them?”

Yuuri finds himself already knowing the answer to that question. “Yes,” he says. “Now that I’m thinking about it, sometimes it was them that pushed me to go to some places I haven’t even been before… which is where I would run into you, I guess.”

Victor nods. “I think so as well.”

It’s silent for a moment and Yuuri wonders what could possibly happen now. He figures they’ll just go back to being rivals (not that Yuuri stopped). He doesn’t know what to do. He feels so awkward god this is so awkward why isn’t Victor saying or doing anyt—

“Do you want to get revenge on them?”

Yuuri was nowhere near ready to hear _that_.

“What? Why?”

Victor just sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I… I just _know_ that Chris is going to hold this over me _forever_ , and the only way I can see trying to get him back is… is to somehow prank him back. He might not—actually, he probably won’t—learn his lesson, but it’d be fun.”

Yuuri doesn’t know why his heart is beating so fast loud fast loud fast loud fast loud—

“What do you have in mind?”

Victor doesn’t respond.

Yuuri smirks a bit (he can’t help it; this is his nemesis). “You don’t even have a plan, do you?”

Victor huffs. “Well, do _you_?”

Yuuri thinks about it. He thinks about what their stupid friends were trying to do… and… no, that’s ridiculous.

“Well….”

“Yes?”

“I mean… we could act like we were dating and then be really annoying about it. I mean… we tell them that we did actually like each other and that we’re dating now, but we won’t shut up about _that_ instead. I know… I know that sounds stupid and I understand if you don’t actually want to do it because honestly it’s stupid and—”

“That’s a wonderful plan!”

Yuuri is shocked to hear praise that’s directed at _him_ coming from Victor and he gapes at him for a second before he realizes he probably looks stupid.

“Oh,” he says.

Victor doesn’t say anything else, and Yuuri fights back the urge to look away. _Why is he doing this?!_ He barely even _likes_ Victor and now he’s going to try and pretend like they’re dating? Would it even _work_?

Yuuri suddenly imagines a situation where their friends ask them to kiss.

He blanches.

“On the other hand… maybe we _shouldn_ _’_ _t_ do th—”

“No, I really do think it’s a marvelous plan!” Victor interjects.

Yuuri just peers at him, figuring the other man doesn’t actually understand what fake dating entails.

“Okay, but? What happens if they want us to show affection toward each other? I don’t mean to be _rude_ , but… we aren’t exactly… friends.”

Yuuri had looked away when admitting that last part, but when he finally braves himself to look back at him, Victor just looks amused.

“Are you talking about whether or not we’d have to kiss or hold hands?”

Yuuri, against his own will of _course_ , blushes at that.

"I mean, yes, that's included. I-I was thinking more along the lines that we've been known enemies for years now."

"Known enemies, huh?"

Suddenly, Yuuri is embarrassed for a different reason. Is he the only one that takes their rivalry so seriously? Did he just admit to Victor that he cares more about their relationship, _rivalry_ , whatever it is, more than he probably should? Did Victor really not feel that way as we—

"Yes, that's more-or-less how I phrase it as well," Victor suddenly continues to say, breaking Yuuri's thoughts.

Yuuri tries not to let out a sigh of relief. Instead, he just nods.

"Exactly. So, are we sure we can even convince them that we're dating? If they figure out beforehand it could possibly be even _more_ embarrassing, and I know Phichit, and like Chris, he'd make fun of me _forever_."

Victor goes quiet at that, frowning slightly as he thinks.

"Well… then we should get to know each other first. And after we do, we can make a more defined plan. We're… both quite intelligent people. I'm sure we can figure something out."

Yuuri wants to say something about Victor's reluctance to admit that Yuuri is smart, but he doesn't mention it. In fact, Yuuri is surprised to see that he's not even a little irritated at it. He… he feels excited, actually. Yuuri doesn’t know if it's a good sign that he's _this_ excited to prank his best friend, and even though there's a smaller voice in his head saying that _no, that can't be all there is to it,_ Yuuri politely ignores it.

And then Yuuri suddenly finds himself smiling at Victor.

"Yes. I'm sure we can."

 

 

Victor doesn't know what the hell he got himself into. He doesn't even know how this _happened_ , and he sure as hell doesn't know why he's feeling such a high level of excited anticipation for… whatever is going to happen next.

They had exchanged information, Yuuri blushing slightly as he gave Victor his identification number, and Victor stupidly blushing in response to seeing Yuuri blush.

Once again, Victor doesn't know what the hell he got himself into.

He's back in his dorm, Chris decidedly not present, and he has his PADD resting against his knees, Yuuri's identification number already keyed in, but not sent. He doesn't have a message written either, but Victor will get to that soon.

Twenty minutes pass and Victor starts thinking that he's probably the most ridiculous person in the galaxy.

Checking over the numbers once again, he finally writes his message.

 **Victor:** _Hey, Yuuri. This is Victor._

Victor puts the PADD away, not expecting Yuuri to respond for a while at least, but his PADD making a small noise says otherwise.

 **Yuuri:** _Hey, Victor. This is Yuuri. :P_

Victor frowns at the PADD. Is… Yuuri making fun of him? Victor feels a slight level of irritation and almost thinks about writing something mean in response, but… but that's not the point here. And where did this animosity come from anyway? He's probably just teasing him, right?

Or is he mocking him?

 

 

Meanwhile, Yuuri is having a mental breakdown over the fact that he just sent His Mortal Arch Nemesis Victor Fucking Nikiforov a somewhat-flirty message.

 

 

He's teasing him, right?

 **Victor:** _Haha, very funny. your humor is, as always, incredibly impressive._

 **Yuuri:** _What would you know of my humor? we barely talk. it's always been glares._

 **Victor:** _Are you trying to say that you don't glare at me too?_

 **Yuuri:** _I don't recall typing that at all, actually._

 **Victor:** _your glare is worse than mine, though. so mean!_

 **Yuuri:** _your glare???? is pretty bad??? it's not even GLARING as much as it is "you're an idiot and I'm above you"_

 **Victor:** _TECHNICALLY, you do the same. :P_

 **Yuuri:** _whoops?_

Victor pauses, not sure about what to type out next. Should he just delve right into planning? He shakes his head, realizing that goes against the whole point of _getting to know each other_ first and _then_ going into the actual plan. But… they could still _plan_ it, right? Or should he wait? What the hell is he supposed to do? Why is he so stressed over something so ridiculous like this? He's _Victor Nikiforov_.

His PADD lights up again and Victor is both relieved and irritated that Yuuri addressed it first.

 **Yuuri:** _So, do you want to meet up somewhere? I'm usually pretty busy, but I could try and make room sometime this week for you._

 **Victor:** _wow, you're that busy? what do you even do besides glare at people?_

 **Yuuri:** _Here I am, trying to steer the conversation to the point at hand, and yet you can't just let me win, huh?_

Victor doesn't know why he said that at all.

He acts like he does.

 **Victor** : _I didn't like you saying it as if I was a chore. it's kind of rude._

 **Yuuri** : _I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I meant more… well, it's not like we're really friends though? I know we need to learn more about each other for this prank to even work, but I'm also really stressed because a certain somebody is trying to ruin my status as valedictorian._

 **Victor:** _I wonder who that could be ;)_

Is Victor _flirting_ with Yuuri Katsuki?

Victor isn't stupid. He prides himself on being able to read emotions well in others, but now he's flirting with _Katsuki_? With Yuuri fucking Katsuki? The man who is singlehandedly ruining his life? Well, perhaps not singlehandedly, but he definitely has a significant role in being one of Victor's Known Enemies.

And yet Victor sits there for the next few moments, watching as Yuuri doesn't respond to him, and he can't deny that he isn't exactly feeling the usual annoyance he feels about Yuuri.

(Did Yuuri ever annoy him in the first place?)

Of course.

(But why?)

Why not?

Victor decides, once again, that he doesn't know what the hell he got himself into.

And yet, once again, he can't help but revel in the anticipation.

 

 

Yuuri doesn't know how to respond. A _winky_ face? Why the hell is Victor sending him a _winky_ face? Just as Yuuri is about to respond with, he doesn't know, _something_ , the Worst and Best Friend in the World walks in.

"Yuuri?"

"Phichit! Where were you?!"

Phichit stills for just a moment, and if Yuuri wasn't looking for it, he wouldn't have noticed it at all. Phichit, however, quickly recovers and keeps moving toward his bed, collapsing down on it.

"Oh, I was just… at dinner."

"It's only just after lunchtime."

"Yeah…."

"Did you eat alone?" asks Yuuri.

"No."

"Oh, who'd you eat with?"

"I mean, sorry, yes, I did eat alone."

"Then… why did you say you didn't?"

"I-I don’t know. Anyway, weren’t you spending the day at the observatory today?" Phichit asks, obviously trying to change the subject. Yuuri is impressed he's kept an impassive expression so far.

"Oh, I went, yeah, but I saw Victor so I just came back instead." Yuuri fakes a grimace.

"Oh. That's a shame," Phichit says.

"Why?"

Suddenly, Phichit is laughing.

Yuuri frowns, confused. "Phichit? What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I was going to say that maybe you and Victor could become friends, but I realized how funny of a joke that is."

It's a lie. Yuuri can tell it's a lie, and he's having too much fun to let it end there.

"Aren't you the one who's been subtly suggesting that to me for years? To become friends with him? Why is it so funny now?"

Phichit goes deathly quiet.

"I guess… I just… finally realized. Ha ha."

Yuuri just hums and Phichit clears his throat, standing up abruptly.

"I'm going to go wash my face," Phichit says.

"Okay."

Yuuri watches in amusement as his best friend flees the room and hides in the bathroom. He looks back down at his PADD, realizing he never got the chance to respond to his enemy's weirdly flirty message.

 **Yuuri:** _sorry sorry Phichit came in and I decided to grill him about where he was. I think he ate with Chris. or is Chris there?_

Victor doesn't respond for nearly five minutes.

 **Victor:** _yeah, Chris just got back. He keeps bringing up my family and if they know how nerdy their son is, which is what he does when he's trying to hide something. I also think he ate with Phichit._

 **Yuuri:** _how did we not realize_

 **Victor:** _the entire universe is out there and we both got stuck with friends who want to ruin our lives_

 **Yuuri:** _I love Phichit so much but sometimes he's… so much. love him though_

 **Victor:** _I've honestly considered taking a 'vacation' with Chris and then just stranding him on another planet, but I figured he'd get a kick out of it and somehow find me in the end. I can never escape._

Yuuri can't help the laugh that escapes just as Phichit walks back in.

Phichit raises an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

Yuuri shakes his head. "Nothing."

"You're laughing."

"Am I not allowed to?"

Phichit stares at him, but eventually smiles. "You're allowed to. I like seeing you laugh."

Yuuri just stares at him as he lies down to take a nap.

"I'm taking a nap."

"I figured," Yuuri laughs.

Phichit smiles wider when he laughs, but then turns over and quickly falls asleep.

Yuuri is sometimes jealous of how quickly Phichit can fall asleep.

 **Yuuri:** _maybe he isn't so bad after all_

 **Victor:** _who? Chris? nah, he's a menace. doesn't make him any less of my best friend, though._

 **Yuuri:** _I was talking about Phichit, but relatable. Phichit just told me he likes when I laugh. should we play this prank on them?_

 **Victor:** _don't let his pretty words fool you. both him and Chris staged this whole elaborate affair for? for what? to make fun of us, probably._

And then suddenly Yuuri remembers something.

 **Yuuri:** _oh. I just realized something._

 **Victor:** _Yes?_

 **Yuuri:** _I think this might be my fault._

 **Victor:** _I could see that, but why?_

 **Yuuri:** _what do you mean you could see that?_

 **Victor:** _you're evil_

 **Yuuri:** _I'm not EVIL. if anyone is meaner out of the two of us, it's you._

 **Victor:** _???? you're so mean to me??_

 **Yuuri:** _YOU'RE MEAN TO ME????_

 **Victor:** _this is getting nowhere. anyway, why do you think it's your fault (also, I agree)_

 **Yuuri:** _shut up :P_

 **Yuuri:** _anyway, it might be my fault because a while ago I told Phichit I was tired of… glaring at you._

 **Victor:** _what does that mean? then just don't glare at me, why is that hard, valedictorian?_

 **Yuuri:** _no I mean I was tired of having such a bad relationship with you? I don't know. it was stressing me out and Phichit said he could try talking to you or Chris about it._

Victor doesn't respond for almost ten minutes.

 **Victor:** _sorry, I had to pee._

 **Victor:** _you… you were tired of our bad relationship?_

 **Yuuri:** _Yes._

 **Victor:** _Ah._

 **Yuuri:** _anyway, Phichit said he would talk to you or Chris? Did he ever talk to you?_

 **Victor:** _no, but he did stop us to talk to Chris one time_.

 **Yuuri:** _you didn't eavesdrop?_

 **Victor:** _why would I do that? they said it was personal_

 **Yuuri:** _yeah, but you didn't even hear anything?_

 **Victor:** _I was pretty caught up in the moment._

 **Yuuri:** _What does that even mean?_

 **Victor:** _I… I was really excited about a project and was too busy thinking about it to notice what Chris and Phichit were doing._

 **Yuuri:** _you get excited over projects?_

 **Victor:** _Of course I do. Do you not?_

 **Yuuri:** _No!_

 **Yuuri:** _I mean! I do! I mean 'no' as in I was personally offended by the suggestion that I DIDN'T. I love doing projects._

 **Victor:** _that’s so cool! I don't meet very many people who actually ENJOY doing projects._

 **Yuuri:** _projects are fun. Okay, so back to the main topic: how are we going to do this?_

 **Victor:** _we just pretend to date_

 **Yuuri:** _Yes_

 **Victor:** _???_

 **Yuuri:** _if you make fun of me, I'm ending this prank right now._

 **Victor:** _what do you mean?_

 **Yuuri:** _I've never dated anyone. I don't know how to date._

 **Victor:** _you've never dated anyone before?_

 **Yuuri:** _is that you making fun of me? Because I honestly won't stand for that kind of shit. It's my own choice not to date._

 **Victor:** _I'm not making fun of you! I was genuinely shocked._

 **Yuuri:** Why?

 **Victor:** _I don't know. Could we plan this in person? I'm not big on comming._

 **Yuuri:** _Sure. I'm really busy tomorrow, but we could meet up the day after? are you free?_

 **Victor:** _no, not that day. Could you do the day after?_

 **Yuuri:** _yes_

 **Yuuri:** _where do you want to meet?_

 **Victor:** _how about the observatory that started it all?_

 **Yuuri:** _Funny. What time?_

 **Victor:** _14:00 ?_

 **Yuuri:** _That works!_

 **Victor:** _okay_

 **Yuuri:** _okay_

 **Yuuri:** _Bye, Victor_

 **Victor:** _bye, Yuuri. hope Phichit isn't too mean to you_

 **Yuuri:** _I hope Chris puts you out of both of our miseries_.

 **Victor:** _remember how I said earlier you were meaner to me?_

 **Yuuri:** _I'll give you that one._

 **Yuuri:** _sorry_

 **Victor:** _it's okay!_

Yuuri hates how bad he feels about sending that last message. It was just a joke, but did Victor take him seriously? He didn't seem to.

Yuuri sighs, putting his PADD down. He has work he needs to do for his classes. Starfleet Academy waits for no one.

One unproductive hour later, a large part of Yuuri decides that Victor truly is the worst human being and that this whole situation must just be Victor's plan to sabotage his grades.

Another part of Yuuri knows that it's partially his fault for being so affected in the first place, but as always, Yuuri ignores it.

Phichit simply naps on, unaware of Yuuri's struggle despite being one of the main causes.

 

 

Victor loves Vulcans. He only knows one, his friend Romar, but he loves them. If there's one thing Victor hates, it's lying, and just as the universe would have it, Vulcans don't lie.

He promised to meet up with Romar in one of the study rooms the next day and Victor greets him immediately, a bright smile on his face.

"Romar! Tell me honestly. Am I an idiot?" he asks, sitting down across the table. Nobody else is using the study rooms at the moment so Victor allows himself to be louder than usual.

"Your intelligence is above average compared to most humans, but of course still lacking compared to higher-educated beings, such as us Vulcans."

Victor grins. "Okay, but am I an idiot? Listen to this and tell me. You know Katsuki?"

"The valedictorian of your class. Yes. I haven't acquainted myself with him, but I know of him. You speak of him regularly."

Victor laughs. "No, I don't."

"You've mentioned Katsuki approximately 6.3872 times a day in the time I've known you. Of course, my calculations may not be exact as I do not interact with you daily, but treat it as the closest estimate. Katsuki is one of your most frequent talking points."

Victor is blushing now. "O-oh."

"What of Katsuki?"

"Well, don't tell Chris this."

"I have no reason to speak to Giacometti."

Victor laughs. "Yes, well, don't tell him. But Chris and Yuuri's friend Phichit decided to play a prank on us by convincing us that the other has a crush on him. Yuuri and I found out, however, and are now planning on pretending to fake-date in order to play a prank on Chris and Phichit."

"It's curious how humans frequently participate in such immature acts in order to accomplish nothing else but human satisfaction."

Victor laughs again. "Yes, yes, very curious indeed. But what do you think about it?"

"I don't necessarily see the logic in spending too much time thinking about a childish situation that doesn't involve me."

"Romar."

Romar allows himself to sigh and Victor grins.

"It is foolish, immature, unreasonable, and illogical."

"That it?"

"Why do you participate in it? You are not one to participate in 'pranks,' Victor."

Victor goes quiet for a moment. "I've participated in pranks before."

"When? I do not remember this. Unless it happened before we knew each other."

Victor goes quiet again. "It… probably happened before. I'm not sure. I'm just doing it because it'll be amusing to see Chris get irritated when we announce we're dating."

"Why would he be unsatisfied with your hypothetical relationship with Katsuki? Does he dislike Katsuki?"

"No, it's not that," Victor says. "It's more… he'll be irritated by us being in love, I suppose?"

"Does Giacometti not wish for your happiness? If he enjoys Katsuki's friendship, would he not be satisfied to know his dear friend has entered an enjoyable companionship?"

Victor knows Romar is genuinely curious, but each word he says feels like pins pressing into his throat.

Chris _would_ be happy to know Victor found somebody. And he'd probably be ecstatic that it's Yuuri. He _likes_ Yuuri. He'd perhaps even tease Victor _more_ because he got together with his self-declared Arch Nemesis.

Victor suddenly feels like the biggest idiot in the world. He's such a fool.

"Oh," he says.

Romar simply looks at him.

Victor doesn't bring up Yuuri for the rest of the conversation.

 

 

Yuuri and Victor run into each other four times in the next two days, all at random times in the day. However, this time around, they both smile knowingly at each other and even talk about how their day was going so far.

Their shared class with Dr. Feltsman also went surprisingly well when the two weren't spending their time glaring at each other or making snide comments.

When they had both raised their hands to answer a question, Yuuri saw that Victor's hand went up first and put his down with a smile.

The whole class seemed surprised, but Yuuri didn't care.

And when Victor answered correctly (unsurprisingly), Yuuri raised his hand and agreed with Victor's point.

Even Dr. Feltsman seemed surprised.

Yuuri felt the most shocked out of everybody, however, and when he finally realized a couple hours later what he had been doing, he couldn't stop blushing.

What is he _doing_?

He briefly scolds himself in his head for acting like he can't be nice to somebody, but… but this seems to be _more_ than just playing nice.

Yuuri doesn't want to admit that it was nice to see Victor's surprised expression when Yuuri validated his answer rather than a petulant or irritated one. Yuuri doesn't want to admit that it was nice to actually _talk_ to the other man rather than say rude things under his breath. Yuuri doesn't want to admit he actually _liked_ Victor Nikiforov as a person and has for a long time, but felt that animosity was the easier way, especially when Victor wasn't any nicer back.

It was simply natural for them to be rivals, right?

They both wanted the same thing. To be valedictorian. And only one of them can be valedictorian.

It was _natural_ for them to dislike each other.

Yuuri hates how idiotic he sounds even to himself.

Yuuri has never hated Victor Nikiforov.

It was all just competition. It always has been. Petty competition for the highest rank in the class.

That's _okay_ , Yuuri realizes.

He still wants to be number one. He doesn't want to have to give up his position as valedictorian to Victor again. It doesn't matter how stupidly perfect and kind he truly is, Yuuri _wants_ to be valedictorian.

And he'll work even harder to make sure he keeps his place.

But… perhaps he could become friends with Victor along the way?

Yuuri nods to himself.

And if he can't become friends with the other man, he'll continue to do what he wants to keep doing. Work harder. Study more.

Graduate as the valedictorian and get recommended to be a science officer. Or he could go into navigation. Yuuri hasn't quite figured that one out yet, but he knows he wants to maintain his ranking. His family would be so proud of him and him basically abandoning them to go to Starfleet wouldn't have been for nothing.

Yuuri's grades mean more to him than any of these confusing feelings he's been experiencing recently and he just needs to keep reminding himself of that.

It'll be okay.

 

 

When Victor arrives at the observatory, Yuuri is already there.

"Hey," Victor greets.

Yuuri's gaze snaps up to meet his. "Hi."

"Are you okay?" he asks, sitting down.

Yuuri just nods. "Yes. So, I've been thinking."

"Must be hard."

Yuuri glares at him, but it seems… different. Victor doesn't know how, but it is. Victor hates that he thinks he likes it.

" _Anyway_ , I think we need to act a bit awkward for a few days. At least I do."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Phichit knows I've never been in a relationship so I'd probably be a little awkward around him for a while. I don't… I don't know how you act when you're in a relationship. You were with that girl for a while in our first year, but—"

"You know about that?"

"Yes? Our entire class knew about it."

"Why?"

"You two were annoying," Yuuri responds bluntly. "Back to what I was saying, we should act like we've been dating, but didn't tell them. We shouldn't tell them we're dating right off the bat. I wouldn't do that anyway. I'd probably have to psyche myself up quite a bit to admit to Phichit that I was dating _anybody_ , much less _you_."

"Why were we annoying?"

"Victor," Yuuri responds, obviously pained.

Victor sighs. "Fine, but I'm asking you again later. Okay, so we act like we're keeping a secret for a few days. I can do that. We're doing it right now."

"Yes, but _really_ act like you're keeping a _big_ secret. Make it really obvious you're keeping a secret."

"Yes, we can both do that," Victor nods.

And suddenly, Yuuri is reaching across the table and holding his hand.

"What."

Yuuri is blushing. "Sorry. I was wondering how to tell you we should practice hand-holding and being affectionate with each other, but I didn't know how and now I'm holding your hand apparently."

Victor can't help it. He laughs. Closing his fingers around Yuuri's, they're officially publicly holding hands.

Yuuri's hands are cold as hell, but Victor doesn't especially mind.

"Your hands are cold," Victor says.

"Thanks."

"Maybe it's because you're so cold-blooded."

Yuuri stops holding his hand.

"No~" Victor laughs, reaching for it again. Yuuri lets him and their hands clasp around the other once again. "It was just a joke. I didn't mean to offend you."

Yuuri is looking at their hands for a moment and then looks back up at Victor.

"Have you ever meant to offend me?" he asks, expression serious and curious.

Victor doesn't even have to think about it. "No, not really. It's… it's not like I really hated you. I was just irritated because you're my competition."

"Competition," Yuuri repeats. "Exactly."

Victor squeezes Yuuri's hand. "I've never hated you, Yuuri. And I'm sorry if any of my mean words ever actually offended you or hurt you."

Yuuri is still staring at him, but he doesn't move a muscle when Victor comes to place his other hand on top of their joined hands.

Finally, Yuuri responds. "I was never too hurt by it, to be honest. I also want to apologize. I'd… I'd rather we be friends than enemies. Even if it was fun to make up different ways to say that you're my rival."

"You too?" responds Victor, laughing.

Yuuri just looks at him, confused, and Victor just lets it go. He removes his hand, still holding Yuuri's hand with his other, and sighs.

"We're idiots," he says.

Yuuri laughs. "You might be, but who said I was?"

Victor glares at him.

He doesn't mean it.

"Okay, so after we act all weird to our friends for a few days? When do we tell them?"

"I would probably tell Phichit in a really natural fashion? And I think it'd be funnier too. I want to tell Phichit first, though. Before you tell Chris, I mean. Can I just comm you after I've told him?"

"Sure."

They had agreed a few days ago that their "meeting" would only last an hour at most, but five hours later, Yuuri is laughing so hard at a story Victor admits to him that he falls off his chair and Victor thinks that the sight is something precious indeed.

 

 

**[INTERMISSION:**

**THREE DAYS AGO]**

 

"I'm here, I'm here!" Phichit says as he slides in beside Chris in the dining hall. Mila sits on the opposite side from them, looking both unimpressed and amused.

"Finally," she laughs.

"Where are the others?"

"Couldn't make it," Chris says. Not even giving Phichit time to breathe, Chris moves on to the subject of interest. "Okay, so what are we doing this week?"

"I think we should just continue to have them meet up," Mila says. "I'm honestly really busy this week with my warp theory homework so I won't be able to really help out much."

Phichit nods. "Same here. I have two exams at the end of this week and it's driving me insane. I'll be able to do a bit though, like _guide_ Yuuri in the correct direction," he grins.

Chris grins too. "So, we'll just keep making them run into each other? What about a future plan?"

Mila groans and then laughs. "Let's get to that after this week ends. Thinking so far into the future reminds me of how much I have to do, which, stressful."

Chris laughs. "That's cool. Let's plan out how we want them to meet up though."

"Sounds good."

Not even an hour later, they're done scheming. Mila stands up to leave first.

"I'll comm the others the details. They'll help if they can."

Chris and Phichit both nod.

"Sounds good."

 

 

**[TWO DAYS AGO]**

 

 **Phichit:** _yuuri is acting weirdly_

 **Chris:** _so is Victor_

 **Phichit:** _do you think they KNOW????????_

 **Chris:** _i doubt it?_

 **Phichit:** _yeah we'd probably be dead right now if they already found out. yuuri has no mercy :')_

 **Chris:** _there's no way they know & exactly._

 **Phichit:** _what do you think they'll do when they do eventually find out?_

 **Chris:** _like you said, kill us_

 **Phichit:** _if they killed us now then i wouldn't have to take these exams :')_

 **Chris:** _same_

 **Chris:** _well not really bc i take the easiest courses here_

 **Chris:** _anyway let's just keep making them run into each other_

 **Phichit:** _on it_

 

**[ONE DAY AGO]**

 

 **Chris:** _victor is going to the observatory again @ 2 tmrw apparently. should we send yuuri there too?_

 **Phichit:** _wait what_

 **Chris:** _??_

 **Phichit:** _sorry, yeah. i mean yuuri is ALSO going there tmrw @ 2_

 **Chris _:_** _are u serious oh man i love this_

 **Phichit:** _this is the work of fate._

 **Chris:** _fate who is also tired of their shit_

 **Phichit:** _thank u so much @ the universe for already doing our work for us_

 **Phichit:** _nice_

 **Chris:** _nice_

 

 

For the next couple of days, Yuuri and Victor purposefully act like they're hiding something. It works too well.

"Why are you acting so weird?" Phichit groans one day after Yuuri said something especially cryptic.

"I'm _not_? Acting _weird_? Why would you _think that_? I'm _fine_?"

Phichit just glares at him and heaves a heavy sigh.

 

 

"Victor, you're obviously hiding something."

" _You're_ obviously hiding something."

"Yes, you got me. Now, what's up? Are you okay?"

"Are _you_ okay?"

Chris throws a pillow at him.

 

 

After a few days, Yuuri has just finished his work and settles against the wall on his bed, PADD in lap.

He giggles at Victor's message.

 **Victor:** _chris is so freaked out by everything i'm doing, it's really funny_

 **Yuuri:** _are you doing that thing where you just repeat what he said back to him. QUALITY acting right there :P_

 **Victor:** _:P i'm a great actor, excuse me. he doesn't know anything, but he's suspecting EVERYTHING._

Yuuri laughs again and this time Phichit catches it.

"Why are you giggling at your PADD? Are you reading a really interesting article or something? You're such a dork, Yuuri."

Yuuri looks up at Phichit, who's frowning suspiciously at him.

Yuuri decides it's time.

"Phichit, I have to tell you something."

Phichit's expression immediately becomes concerned, and Yuuri can't help but love his friend a little more for that.

He's still going to prank him though.

"What is it, Yuuri?"

"You can't tease me about it."

Phichit doesn't say anything. Yuuri fakes a sigh full of emotion.

"You were right."

"Usually, but why this time?"

Yuuri can't help the laugh, but he forces himself to act seriously again.

"Victor has a crush on me."

Phichit looks delighted. "You finally understand!"

"That's not it."

"What do you mean?"

"I have a crush on him. I'm attracted to him."

"Wait, _what?_ "

"And now we're dating. We've been dating for a few days now. It's why I've been acting so weird. I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, I didn't know how."

"Wait, _WHAT?!_ "

Yuuri watches as Phichit doesn't say anything else as he takes his PADD and flees to the bathroom.

 **Yuuri:** _tell him_

 **Victor:** _wait, right now?_

 **Yuuri:** _yeah_

 **Victor:** _he's not back yet_

 **Yuuri:** _well tell him when he gets back bc i just told Phichit_

 

 

As soon as Phichit locks the door of the bathroom, he's messaging Chris.

 **Phichit:** _EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY !!!!!!!!! E M E R G E N C Y !!!!!!!_

But Chris doesn't respond and Phichit groans, knowing he can't just stay in here forever without a real reason so he decides a random shower will suffice.

Twenty minutes later, Phichit is showered and Chris has responded.

 **Chris:** _???_

 **Chris:** _what's wrong_

 **Chris:** _okay fine don't respond so rude_

 **Chris:** _I THINK I KHNWO WHAT YOUR'E TALKING ABOUT EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY !! THIS ISNT WHAT WE PLANNED_

 **Chris:** _PHICHIT WHERE ARE U_

 **Chris:** _PHICHIT WHAT DO WE DO_

 **Phichit:** _I DONT KNOW ??????_

 **Chris:** _VICTOR WON'T STOP GIGGLING @ HIS PADD? GROSS?_

 **Phichit:** _i literally fled the room when yuuri told me and im scared to go back out there and see the domestic shit for what it is and that'S DOMESTICITY_

 **Chris:** _didnt you say the characters in the play got together_

 **Phichit:** _THEY LITERALLY GOT TOGETHER JUST LIKE IN THE PLAY WHAT EVEN_

 **Phichit:** _what do we DO NOW???_

 **Chris:** _theyre kinda cute tbh_

 **Phichit:** _chris don't give in think about the consequences_

 **Phichit:** _what should we TELL them? SHOULD we tell them???_

 **Chris:** _im still in denial over this honestly how do u think i can try to convince them of anything right now_

 **Phichit:** _i can HEAR yuuri laughing_

 **Chris:** _let's just wait and see_

 **Phichit:** _okay but what do we DO_

 **Chris:** _victor is laughing so hard now what even is yuuri even THAT funny_

 **Phichit:** _don't insult my best friend!!_

 **Chris:** _i'm sorry!! what's happening !!_

 **Phichit:** _i don't want to tell them :( they'll beat us up :( im scared of victor_

 **Chris:** _why are you scared of victor he's such a baby. anyway i agree let's not tell them yet god victor is acting so cute rn i hate it but also aww_

 **Phichit:** _ugh_

 **Chris:** _agreed_

 **Chris:** _ugh indeed_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when did this become a texting au tho
> 
> also yes in the future 20-something-year-olds use :P like a bunch of 12-year-olds. don't ask me why okay,,,, /i/ don't even use :P lmao
> 
> this story is SO dumb fuhasjnkfa im so sorry for all of THAT im an ANGST writer i havent written as much romcom fic as i have THESE CHARAS HAVE DEPRESSION let's work thru that. 
> 
> also im going to TRY and update this soon, but i can't make promises my mental health is all over the place rn and college is really stressful SIGH :')
> 
> also aren't phichit and chris hilarious. i love writing them. 
> 
> anyway! only one more chapter left to go !!!!!!! thanks for sticking with me!!! also i might write an epilogue tbh but i havent decided yet 
> 
> check out my tumblr @ [literallynothingbutvictuuri](http://literallynothingbutvictuuri.tumblr.com/)  
> all the love as always xxxxxx  
> -dianna


	4. Implication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> implication- (noun) the conclusion that can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been 84 years....................
> 
> but i updated!!!!!!! and i finished it!!!!!!!!!! ahhh!!!!!!!! i am about to CRY from relief fjfjfjfj i churned out this entire chapter in the past day and a half i am so so happy i am finally finished <3
> 
> i hope you like it and thank you for sticking with me for so long xoxoxo

Phichit somehow manages to go three more hours without cracking. It's almost impressive.

"So… you're dating Victor?"

Yuuri can't help the amused laugh that escapes. "I am, yeah."

Phichit just stares at him a little longer. Yuuri stares back. Phichit blinks.

"So… you're _dating_ Victor?"

" _Yes_ , Phichit."

Yuuri is getting a kick out of this, honestly.

Phichit is still staring at him and Yuuri almost half expects him to ask the same thing again, but instead, Phichit lets out a big grin.

"I'm happy for you, Yuuri."

Yuuri blinks.

What.

"You are?"

Phichit looks confused. "Of course? You're so picky with who you date and if Victor makes you happy… _all of a sudden_ … then I'm happy for you. I support you."

This time, it's Yuuri who stares at Phichit.

"Thank… you," he says cautiously. Phichit nods happily, humming to himself before he stands up to go back into the bathroom he had escaped into hours earlier.

Yuuri frowns at his retreating figure, biting his lip.

Phichit must be hiding something else…. Yuuri will figure out what it is.

 

 

Victor is studying when Chris finally brings it up. He has an exam coming up and Victor isn't particularly _worried_ about it, but he needs something to focus on, _anything_ that isn't the way Chris is staring daggers into him.

"So, are you still trying to beat him?"

Victor just yawns.

"Victor, come on."

"Yes, of course I'm still trying to beat him," Victor replies with a small sigh. It'd be ridiculous to think even if Yuuri and Victor _were_ actually dating… not that they ever would. So, it doesn't matter anyway. They'll fake-date for a long enough time where Chris and Phichit will face Regret and then part ways and Victor will focus all his energy on beating Yuuri for the position of valedictorian.

Simple, really.

"But you… you're dating him."

Victor nods, scanning his PADD as he recalls old information. "I am."

"So, you're going to try and defeat your boyfriend anyway?"

Victor tries not to react too harshly at the word ' _boyfriend.'_ He thinks he succeeds.

"Of course I am. He's trying to beat me too."

Chris whistles. "Wow. Tough love."

Victor sighs again. "Can you please let me study?" He half-hopes that Chris will let him and leave, but Chris knows him better than maybe even he'd like to admit and he sticks around with a scoff.

"Are you kidding me? You know this class like the back of your hand. You'll ace the test like you always do. I don't even know why you're studying… well, except to avoid talking about Yuuri. Like… _how_? Seriously, what the _fuck,_ Victor? How did it even happen? When? Why? I am happy for you, don't get me wrong, but… _what_?"

Victor smiles. Chris's reaction is definitely amusing and he thinks that this all might be worth it after all.

"I don't know… we've just been hanging out a lot. Remember how much I've been complaining about running into him all the time? It just kind of went from there."

Chris goes quiet and Victor knows he's holding everything back to not try and claim that he's cupid reincarnated. There's no way he could say that… that'd only expose himself after all.

So, Victor watches Chris internally struggle with what to say to that, and finally, Chris just shoots him a tight smile and plops himself onto his bed.

"Then, I'm happy for you two. I do want to hear more about it later. But I think my brain is fried enough."

"I understand. Now, shut up and let me study."

Chris turns over, back facing Victor. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. You'll do amazing like you always do."

Victor does well in holding in his laughter.

 

 

Victor and Yuuri sit next to each other in their class together, which wouldn't have shocked anybody any more than they did last time. Except this time they sit so close that they brush shoulders. And hold hands. Which meant that all the students were gaping at them. Even Dr. Feltsman sent them confused glances.

That didn't make them any less competitive. It was nice. Yuuri felt nice. And when Victor got to answer something before him and shoot him a smirk, Yuuri thought that he should be angry like he usually is, but he only rolled his eyes and looked away before Victor could see his blush.

 _This is ridiculous,_ he thinks. _I'm ridiculous. It's not like we haven't done this already. But… but it feels different already. Why does it feel different? We're being competitive again, but… not?_

They eat lunch together too, only Chris being able to sit with them because Phichit is still in a class. At one point, Victor tries to feed him food, but Yuuri glares at him.

"I'm not a _child_ , Victor," Yuuri says, forgetting for a moment that Chris is there.

Victor raises his eyebrows, eyes glancing to his best friend. Yuuri stills.

He opens his mouth. Victor smirks as he feeds him the piece of chicken.

From their peripheral, Chris gags.

 _Okay, okay. So maybe it was worth it_ , Yuuri thinks, beyond mortified. They really needed to set more boundaries. He scoffs at himself in his head at the thought. As if they hadn't spent two hours delegating the rules of dating.

Yuuri glances at Victor again, scowling. Victor only smiles at him.

"Want another bite?" Victor asks, holding out another piece of chicken on his fork just to fuck with him.

Yuuri shakes his head, holding up a spoonful of his soup. "No, I'm good, baby, but how about you? You wanted soup yesterday, didn't you?"

Victor narrows his eyes but smiles anyway. "Yes, of course!" He leans forward, wrapping his lips around the spoon and shooting Yuuri an evil look.

Chris stands up and runs away with the excuse that he isn't hungry anymore. Victor swallows the soup and pulls away.

"I hate you," Victor says, wiping at his mouth.

Yuuri scoffs. " _You're_ the one that started it! What kind of couple feeds each other food so quickly? You didn't even do that with your girlfriend!"

"This is the second time you've brought her up. How do you even know that?"

"You two were annoying!" Yuuri snaps back. Victor goes quiet.

He remembers her alright. He can't even remember her name because she barely spoke, but he remembers that Victor dated her for about four months and that no matter where they went, they were always holding hands. Maybe they _did_ feed each other food. He could see first-year Victor doing that with her and actually _meaning_ it. Hell, he could see _current_ Victor doing that and meaning it.

He supposes Victor thinks it could be romantic. But it's just embarrassing and sure, Yuuri knows he has a bit of a pride issue sometimes, but being fed as if he was a child? Even Victor was embarrassed by it.

(He tries not to think about the small voice in his head saying that maybe it is a bit cute.)

He sighs. "Let's just… not feed each other anymore. I'm sorry for snapping at you. I don't know why I'm so on edge."

"Made any bad grades recently?"

Yuuri stares at him and Victor holds up his hands in defense.

"I mean that seriously! Bad grades make _me_ feel irritated _especially_ when I was valedictorian."

Yuuri can't help it. "Oh? You were valedictorian once? That's so funny, I can hardly remember that."

But instead of glaring at him like Yuuri expects, Victor _laughs_. "Good one, asshole."

Yuuri's stomach churns. "I… I don't know. I guess I'm on edge about lying to Phichit."

"You're literally the one that suggested doing this," Victor deadpans.

"It's not like you disagreed!"

Victor laughs again and there it is again. That churning feeling. Victor is pretty when he laughs.

"That's because it was a good plan!" Victor says.

Yuuri pouts. "Still."

Victor glances at his PADD. "Well, I have class starting soon. I'll see you… after? Where will you be?"

"I'm going to the library to study."

"Which one?"

"The main one."

Victor nods. "Okay. Okay. Well, happy studying!"

He eats his last bite and rushes off, Yuuri watching him as he does. Yuuri doubts many others could pull off his hair color.

Victor's always been so unique. Annoyingly extraordinary. Seemingly nice. And… passionate.

(For a while there, Yuuri thinks he was jealous of Victor for how passionate he was. He had been a shining star when they first met. He still is. Yuuri just feels like he's dulled with the years.)

Yuuri sighs and finishes his food alone, resolutely trying his best to stop thinking about Victor.

 _It's okay_ , he reassures himself. _It's all going to be okay._

 

 **Victor:** hey i'm going to the library to study with yuuri. don't wait up for me

 **Chris:** what do u mean "don't wait up for you" it's like. still daytime. are you going to be there all night???

 **Victor:** maybe :)

 **Chris:** gross nvm stop talking to me

 **Victor:** :)

Victor is laughing as he walks into the library. He sees Yuuri immediately.

"Why do you sit so close to the entrance?" Victor whispers, sliding in next to him.

Yuuri jumps, startled, and looks up at him with wide eyes.

"I don't want to get lost."

"Lost?"

"Do you  _know_ how big this place is? It's ridiculous. The first time I used it, I asked for help seven times and it _still_ took me an hour to find the entrance."

Victor laughs. "But… but that's ridiculous. Why didn't you just ask the PADD for the map?"

Yuuri glares at him. "I didn't know how to use it at the time, okay?"

"So, you just sit by the entrance every time now even though it's probably been years and you also have a great command of the PADD?"

Yuuri sighs and scoots away from him just for the dramatics of it.

" _Yes_ , alright? I've gotten… used to it. And besides, it's not like it's a Big Deal. It's convenient even."

Victor nods. "That makes sense."

"Where do you usually sit?"

"I sit by the entrance, too."

Victor thinks Yuuri's facial expressions are one of the more interesting things he's come across.

"And yet you're trying to give me shit about it?" asks Yuuri.

"I was giving you shit about you getting lost. Not about you sitting by the entrance."

Yuuri gives a long-suffering sigh and Victor feels quite accomplished with his life.

"So, why do _you_ sit by the entrance?"

Victor hums. "I'm too lazy to walk all around this place. Are you kidding me? It's huge."

Yuuri looks just about ready to end his misery by killing Victor at his response. But he just sighs once more and lets out a short laugh.

"We're really a pair of nerds, huh?"

"A _smart_ pair of nerds."

Yuuri scowls. "That's implied by the word "nerds," Victor."

"You never know, Yuuri~" replies Victor.

Yuuri doesn’t respond, going back to studying, but there's a small smile on his face now and Victor thinks he's maybe too cute for his own good. Just maybe.

He pulls out his PADD and pulls up notes from his class.

And they stay mainly quite for another hour or two at least, studying together in silence, even asking each other questions at some points, both always pleased to see that the other knows the answer when they don't.

Finally, Yuuri starts packing up. And Victor has to ask.

"How were… how was I annoying with Kat?"

Yuuri pauses. "Who's Kat?"

Victor raises an eyebrow. "My girlfriend from my first year. The one you said was annoying with me when we dated."

Yuuri just stares at him. "Oh yeah. That was her name?"

"You didn't know?"

"No."

"I thought you knew _everything_."

"Just because we're fake-dating doesn't mean I won't hurt you."

"Oh, I know," Victor chuckles. "But… but what did we do that was so annoying? I've thought about it and yeah, sure, we had some gross PDA moments, but overall, we were just like anyone else dating on campus, I thought? We even broke up on good terms. It wasn't like she was a bad person or anything."

Yuuri purses his lips as he finishes packing his stuff together. "I… I don't know. You seemed to always just _be_ there with her. I was so tired of seeing you two together, I even started avoiding places where you two frequented. I don't know. I think I was just irritated at seeing you everywhere."

Victor remembers Kat. Sweet and smart. And so tired of hearing him talk about Yuuri.

"Why did you two break up?" Yuuri continues on to ask.

Victor pauses.

"Uh, we just weren't in love anymore, I suppose. I doubt we ever loved each other, actually. Originally, I had gravitated toward her because she was Russian as well."

"She was Russian?"

"You know awfully little about a girl you claimed to hate."

"I never said I hated her!"

Oh, that's right. He didn't. "Still."

"So, you broke up because you didn't feel anything for her anymore?"

Victor nods, laughing. "Yeah, she even said I showed more emotion when talking about you than when I was with her."

Yuuri blinks. "What?"

"Oh, well… I mean… I talked about you a lot. I was always complaining about you because you're… you're _you_. And she got tired of hearing about it, basically."

"You and your girlfriend broke up because you wouldn't stop talking about me?"

Victor feels like an idiot. "… No, I didn't say that."

"You just did."

"I didn't."

"You did!"

"Okay, yes, maybe. I kind of resented you for it, honestly."

"You resented _me_ because _you_ chose not to shut up about me?"

"You're making me sound ridiculous."

Yuuri just gapes at him. "You _are_ ridiculous."

Victor huffs. "Gays usually are."

And Yuuri takes one long second to take him in after he said and then like a sudden storm, Yuuri bursts out into laughter. Victor is soon to join him because Yuuri's laugh is infectious and when he thinks about it, how he and Kat broke up _is_ ridiculous.

And it's when Yuuri starts chortling again after he finally manages to stop laughing at him that Victor realizes he has a crush on Katsuki Yuuri.

 

 

**[INTERMISSION**

**CURRENT DAY]**

"So," starts Chris.

"So," Phichit repeats back.

Mila groans. " _So_."

"Okay, but what the fuck?" Chris says.

The five of them met up at a café that neither Yuuri nor Victor have ever been to so they could discuss the Issue at hand. Seung-gil sighs.

"I've already accepted losing my friendship with both of them."

Phichit shakes his head. "They aren't going to be mad at you. Besides… they're… _dating_. So… what?"

Leo lets out a strained laugh. "But _when_ did they start dating?"

"Yuuri told me a few days ago. Probably about a week now."

"But _how_?" Mila asks. "They _hated_ each other."

"You know," Chris muses, "hate and love could easily be confused for one another."

"That only happens in movies and stories, Chris. If I hate someone, I avoid their ass, not shack up with them."

"We also mentioned that!" Phichit interrupts. "How they got together just like in the play."

Seung-gil frowns. "What play? What are you talking about?"

"I don't remember what it was called. Shakespeare. Girl and guy hated each other, but then they thought the other liked the other and they got together in the end. It was a weird play, honestly."

"Ohh, I might have read that," Leo says.

"Wait, was it the one where they died in the end? Girl commits suicide or something?" Mila asks.

"No, that's another one. This one was different. You're thinking of _Romeo_ —"

Chris interrupts. "Okay, it doesn't matter. Either way, they're together now. So, what do we do about it?"

"Tell them?" Leo asks.

Seung-gil shakes his head and their drinks arrive as he responds. "No. If they're happy together, just let them."

Chris nods vigorously. "Victor will _literally_ have my head on a spike. He may be happy right now, but I know him… he wouldn't like to realize he was being pranked like that. Especially even more so now that he actually _cares_ about Katsuki."

"And who knows? It could be a fun wedding story if they get married," he chimes in.

"Honestly, they should be _thanking_ us," Mila says. "We basically hooked them up and now look at them. Feeding each other during lunch."

"You were there?" Phichit asks.

She shakes her head, pointing at Chris. "No, but _this_ one sent me long messages describing his disgust. I can't even imagine. Chris has really struggled the most, it seems."

He nods solemnly. "That I have, that I have."

They all take a sip of their drinks, Phichit humming out in delight. Leo basically downs it in one go.

"They're kind of cute, to be honest," Mila says again. "Disgusting, but I'm… I don't know, I'm happy for them. If I had to endure the grossest of shit just to see them be happy and in love, I'd do it. They deserve it."

They all agree. "Yuuri is really picky about who he dates and it was definitely a surprise to hear about him and Victor, but I'm _happy_ for them," Phichit says. "Anyway, I guess this means our prank is over, right?"

Leo and Mila grin at him.

"Guess so," Chris says. "Well, we had fun while it lasted. And now they owe us their lives. Cheers!"

And from the corner, Romar watches their interaction with a vague interest and holds onto his next conversation topic with Victor.

 

 

Yuuri is honestly impressed that he and Victor managed to convince them to come. And dress _nicely,_ too.

"Italian place, right?" Chris asks as their shuttle arrives at the restaurant.

"Yeah," Yuuri answers. They pass a couple of Starfleet officers leaving the restaurant, all a bit drunk.

"Cadets," one of them says, smirking drunkenly. They all laugh and continue on their way.

Chris rolls his eyes. "Fucking upstarts."

Victor laughs. "That'll be us in a year or two, Chris."

"Like hell it will."

After they check in and are led to their reserved table, Yuuri asks, "What _do_ you want to pursue, Chris?"

"Communications. Xenolinguistics, specifically. I've been told I have a way with languages," he grins, shooting Yuuri a knowing smirk. He shifts his gaze to Victor who seems to already know what's coming. "It's actually how I convinced Victor to give me a chance. I used to listen to him mutter to himself in Russian all the time before I finally gave up the joke and responded back. He was so shocked."

"Asshole! I'll never forget that. He made me feel like I was safe to talk shit about him, but _nope_."

"That's what you get, _captain_." He looks at Yuuri again. "I'm hoping to work with him one day as his communications officer. Victor's _never_ going to get rid of me. Not if I can talk my way around it and I can and will."

Victor lets out a long-suffering sigh. " _If_ I make captain."

Yuuri grabs his hand on instinct. "You'll be captain. You'd be a great captain."

Chris snorts. "Yeah, besides his terrible memory and capacity to work himself to the bone sometimes, he'll be great."

 _Victor's hand is warm_ , Yuuri notes, squeezing harder. He feels a bit awkward, but in his peripheral, he sees both Chris and Phichit staring pointedly and squeezes again. Besides, they had agreed on handholding. It'd be weird if they _weren't_ holding hands, right?

"What about you, Phichit?" Victor asks.

Phichit shrugs. "I don't know. I've liked everything I've done so far. I'm in between like… five things. I'm getting a more general education than most and plan to take extra classes in whatever I'll finally decide on. I'm not too worried about it. Unlike Yuuri here."

Yuuri feels put very much on the spot. Right. They're talking about school.

He laughs. "Yeah, I'm still between being a navigator or science officer."

Victor's grip on his squeezes. "So, you really have no interest in being a captain, Yuuri?"

Yuuri looks at him then and realizes they still haven't ever talked about in detail why they didn't like each other much in the first place. They have, in vague mentions, but not in detail. And Yuuri, and their entire damn class, knows all about what Victor wants to pursue, and he remembers all the times Victor unknowingly made him feel like shit for "wasting" his talent or whatever.

But… but he knows Victor better now. And he sees how passionate Victor is about being a captain. And he knows that Victor was scared, jealous even. Worried that Yuuri would take his dream away from him somehow. And he must not have understood how someone could try so hard with their grades and _not_ want to be captain.

"I want to make my parents proud," Yuuri suddenly says. And Victor's eyes widen. "I know that… I know that most valedictorians end up being captains, but I don't want to be captain. It'd be too much stress, having the entire ship depending on my decisions. I wouldn't even want to be First Officer. I want to help though. And I want to go into space. And I like science. And navigating. I'm trying to figure out which one I like best, of course, but I'm trying harder to maintain my grades. Neither of my parents even went to a normal university. They barely graduated when they were teens. And I want to make them proud. But I don't want to worry them and go off galivanting as a stressed-out captain."

Victor stares at him and blinks and it's so quiet that Yuuri's beyond grateful when the waiter comes over and asks what they want to drink.  

The rest of their conversation goes by quickly and Yuuri notices that Victor starts to lean more into him and Yuuri doesn't mind, even embraces it. In the beginning, some of their gross "couply" things they'd do had a very obvious effect on their best friends (such as making gross kissy faces at each other at one point (Yuuri had wanted death like none other)), but after a while, they stop reacting, but Yuuri and Victor don't stop.

It's… weird, almost, but Yuuri forgets so often and they haven't let go of each other's hands once.

Holding Victor's hand feels nice. So he doesn't stop.

 

 

Victor has felt nearly feverish all night. Since he's realized he may be deeply infatuated with one Katsuki Yuuri, every touch has felt nearly heightened. But… but Yuuri is unaffected by it completely.

Yuuri smiles at him and squeezes his hand and goes back to talking like a normal human being and Victor seems to lose every ounce of sanity he once claimed to have.

By the end of their night out, they're happy and drunk on laughter and maybe a bit tipsy on alcohol too, and when Victor leaves the bathroom first, Chris attaches himself to him and laughs into his ear, "You are _beyond_ whipped, Vitya."

Victor scowls, pushing him off. "We _are_ dating after all. Shut up." And Victor doesn't _like_ blushing, but he knows his whole face is red and he squeezes his eyes tightly together, just waiting, hoping that he can go home and just fall asleep and try and forget all about how pretty Yuuri's eyes are when the light hits them.

On the shuttle back, Yuuri leans his head on his shoulder. Victor isn't sure he can take this anymore.

 _This is your Arch Nemesis!_ he tries to scold himself and fails. They haven't been true rivals since the day they agreed to fake-date. Maybe they were never rivals. He doesn’t even know.

He was always so dramatic about Yuuri. Yuuri being number one. Yuuri beating him again. Yuuri always having the answer to everything. Yuuri Yuuri Yuuri Yuuri _Yuuri_.

But he remembers what Yuuri said in the restaurant. And he feels bad. He feels like an idiot.

Victor is so smart when it comes to some things and a monumental idiot when it comes to others it seems.

And Yuuri laughs into his shoulder at a joke Phichit says and Victor thinks that he wants to be friends with Yuuri at _least_.

But he doesn’t know how to go about doing that.

Yuuri's pretty picky about who he dates, after all, and Victor is more than aware that fake-dating is nothing at all similar to real-dating.

He tries not to feel sad about it and puts on a large smile to make Yuuri laugh some more.

It works.

 

 

When Yuuri and Phichit get back to the dorm, Phichit pounces on the conversation immediately.

"You two are _adorable_."

"Huh?"

"I'm serious! I definitely had my doubts at first, but I can really see it now. I don't know how I didn't before. You two are very cute and have my full support."

" _Huh_?" Yuuri repeats, face flushed.

"How do you feel about him, Yuuri? Be honest. I want all the gross, romantic details," Phichit asks, sitting on his bed and taking off his shoes.

Yuuri sits down, too. He's still blushing.

"Oh, well…."

 _Just be gross about it. Romantic. Talk about how pretty he is or something and how he would make you feel if you were dating_.

"He makes me feel happy," he says. _Well, that's not a lie technically so good job_. "And… he's just so pretty. His smile and his eyes and his hands are always so warm, I don't get how his hands are always so warm, and… comforting, I suppose. He's very comforting to be around. But also very stimulating, if that makes sense?" _Also not a lie…._ "And I like being with him. And talking to him. I actually look forward to when we get to talk again all the time. He's so fun to talk to." _Still not a lie…._ "I don’t know," he sighs. "I just…. like him a lot."

_Oh._

"Awww," Phichit says. He's smiling widely at Yuuri. "I really am happy for you. And proud of you. You literally snagged the second smartest guy here."

"You know that being valedictorian and salutatorian has nothing to with being smart and more to do with the work put in."

"Yeah, but you two _are_ the smartest ones here. We've all accepted that. We've embraced it, I'd say."

Yuuri sighs and his heart is beating so quickly. So damn fast.

Does he… does he like Victor? Like _legitimately_ like him?

Yuuri frowns. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"'K."

He stands up and immediately sits down on the toilet. He takes a breath. His heart is still beating rapidly. He stands up, sits down again, stands up again, splashes water in his face, regrets doing that because now his clothes are all wet, dries himself off, sits down again, and finally, he stands up and his heart is still beating and he realizes.

_Oh no._

_I like him._

 

Another week passes and it's the weekend again, and originally, Phichit and Chris were to join them again on another "date" but they _both_ my mysteriously canceled on them.

Logically, this would mean that Yuuri and Victor wouldn't go out, right?

But Victor is here nonetheless and they're walking around the old-fashioned flea market that's come to their city. They're an earthen group, but the crowd is filled with all types of species.

"Victor! Look!" Yuuri exclaims. Victor stops assessing a booth that's selling him rocks from different planets and hurries to Yuuri's side.

Yuuri's pointing at a stuffed poodle. "Look at how cute it is!"

Victor gives in immediately, cooing at it. "How much is it?!"

The salesperson smiles at them. "Oh, my handmade poodles! They're based on my pet at home. But they're special, want to know why?"

They both nod excitedly. The salesperson grins even more at them.

"They're all infused with a special plant from a planet on the outer system. The plant helps soothe humans when they feel stressed out. It's a perfect pet for studying or working or even when you miss someone close to you."

"That sounds wonderful," Victor exclaims. He turns to Yuuri and sees that he agrees.

"We'll take two."

The salesperson grins at them. "Of course!" They leave for a second and bring back two of the poodles. Yuuri insists on paying for his, but Victor shakes his head, saying that it was payment for Yuuri paying for their food earlier.

He hands it to Yuuri who hugs it immediately. Victor isn't any better, smiling down into the soft cotton. It smells good.

"What are you naming yours?" Victor asks a bit later as they walk down the flea market. Yuuri hums and looks at him knowingly.

"I'll call him Vicchan."

Victor raises an eyebrow. "Cute. Does it mean something?"

Yuuri laughs, looking away. "It stands for 'Victor.' I thought that since you bought it for me and we were together when we bought it… I don't know, it's stupid, I suppose."

Victor thinks it's anything but stupid as he takes Yuuri in with an enamored blush.

"It's not! It's… cute," Victor says.

Yuuri flushes and then clears his throat. "And you? What about yours?"

Victor looks down at it. "I was thinking 'Makkachin.' It's… it's cute."

Yuuri laughs. "It _is_."

Victor beams at him and nods, hugging Makkachin closer to him. "Vicchan and Makkachin. Cute."

He thinks the entire day was worth it when Yuuri smiles softly at him.

 

 

The next week, Romar and Victor meet up again. They decided to stay on campus, meeting in one of the study rooms. Romar and Victor always exchange fun anecdotes together while Victor studies. Romar's valedictorian of his class (the class above Victor's) and will graduate soon enough so Victor has been trying to see him at least twice a month to spend time together. He'll miss the Vulcan.

"Are you ready to graduate?" Victor asks, taking a long sip from his water bottle. Romar nods.

"I am prepared with my credits, yes."

Victor laughs. "Okay, but _mentally_."

"I see no reason as to why my mental state would be affected. I am a Vulcan."

"Uh huh."

Victor thinks the conversation will die off for a few minutes as it usually does and then they'll start talking again when Victor asks a homework question, but then Romar speaks first.

"I heard a… _rumor_ on campus, if you will."

"About me and Victor?"

Romar nods. "Indeed." Victor waits. "I see that you two went ahead on your "prank" as you called it, correct?"

Victor nods. "Yeah, we're heading into week three now."

"I also overheard a discussion between your friends. Giacometti, particularly."

"You were _eavesdropping_?"

"Not intentionally."

It still makes Victor laugh. "I can't believe you were _eavesdropping_."

Romar lets out a sigh. "I wished to express that your friends, although at first expressed concern, are ultimately happy for you and Katsuki."

"What?"

"Yes, they stated that they thought the pair of you "cute" and that they were happy for you. Some expressed concern over losing their friendship with you two, but besides that, they seemed mainly proud for you. Just as I said to you when you first brought this up to me."

"Was that your way of saying ' _I told you so_?'"

"I simply thought you should know that continuing your ridiculous endeavor won't result in what you think it will. I don't pretend to understand humans, but I would think, logically, that continuing a "prank" for the sole purpose of irritating friends would cease once it was realized those very friends are not bothered."

Victor hums.

"You're right."

Romar nods, expecting that.

"But I… this will sound _so_ stupid to you, but I think I like Yuuri. Actually, I do like Yuuri. There's nothing to think about. Somehow, my Declared Arch Nemesis has become my Declared Crush."

Romar gives him a long look, and much to Victor's amusement, sighs deeply.

Victor thinks that expresses more than enough.

 

 

After a particularly long time together, Yuuri comes back from spending more unnecessary time with Victor and decides he can't keep it in any longer.

He falls on top of Phichit who all-but-screams in response.

"Phichit," he says.

"What!?!"

Yuuri pouts. "I think I might like Victor."

Phichit pushes him off. "You're dating him?"

And then Yuuri sighs. He doesn't even want to explain this. He started doing this out of revenge against Phichit and Chris and yet it's still Him that is the most distraught over this.

How is any of this fair?

"I'm not," he starts.

Phichit narrows his eyes, giving out an awkward laugh. "You are."

Yuuri shakes his head. "I'm not."

"You literally are."

"It's a prank. We… we realized a while ago that you and Chris were pranking us with the whole "he likes you thing" which, by the way, fuck you, but because I'm a massive _idiot_ , I randomly suggested we fake date and then be all disgusting toward you two and return the prank, basically. But now it's _backfired_ and I _like_ the evil man. He's evil!"

Phichit stares at him. "You _knew_? About our prank?"

Yuuri rolls his eyes, rolling off the bed as well and crawling up to his own. He grabs Vicchan and holds him close.

"Of _course_ I knew. So did Victor. All we had to do was talk about it and clear up the misunderstanding. It was simple. I still _hate_ you by the way but be my best friend and help me out because I'm fucking into _Victor Nikiforov!_ For real!

Phichit stares longer. "So… these past few weeks… you've been _fake_ -dating?"

"Yes."

"Just to get back at us?"

" _Yes_. Now _help_ me."

Phichit bites his lip. "You should just tell him, then."

"What?! No!"

Phichit holds up his hands in defense. "I'm being serious! You should! He obviously likes you back! It's sickening how much he likes you back!"

Yuuri scowls at him. "Did you not hear a _word_ I just said? We were _fake_ -dating. Of _course_ it looks like he likes me back. But he  _doesn't_ because we were _fake_ -dating."

Phichit shakes his head. "He definitely likes you. Just tell him. He'll say it back, I promise he will."

"He won't, but okay."

" _Yuuri~_ "

Yuuri sighs, pressing his nose into Vicchan. "Okay. I'll think about it." His words come out a bit muffled, but Phichit understood anyway, nodding.

"I hope it works out well."

"Yeah."

"Don't say I never did anything for you."

"I hate you."

 

 

"Do you still hate me?"

Victor looks up and meets Yuuri's nervous gaze. He frowns.

"Definitely not, no. Honestly… I don't know if I ever did. I don't know. But if I did, I don't anymore. Do… do you still hate me?"

Yuuri shakes his head, a small smile playing at his lips. "No. I don't. Although you are absolutely insufferable."

Victor nods seriously. "Understandable."

He shifts his attention back to reading, but Yuuri continues speaking.

"I'm sorry, by the way."

Victor doesn’t have to ask for what. It's sweet that Yuuri is saying it. And Victor feels slightly bad he hadn't earlier. He just… he just didn't. So caught up in simply _existing_ around Yuuri that he forgot that there have been years of animosity between them.

"I'm sorry, too," he replies. "I was mean to you."

"I was mean to you as well. I don't know. You just frustrated me _so much_ and not even just every now and then, like, _all_ the time."

Victor laughs. "Oh, same."

Yuuri giggles.

"So… do you want to be friends, still?" Yuuri says a few seconds later.

Victor notices how hesitantly he says it and swallows past the lump in his throat. "Yeah. Friends."

Yuuri stares at him curiously and nods again. "Friends."

"Just friends."

The air is tense and Victor feels like he's suffocating. Is he the only one who feels this?

"Just friends."

He doesn't think he imagines the disappointment in Yuuri's tone.

(He thinks that maybe, just maybe, he's not alone in this after all.)

 

 

Victor tells Chris later on that day. He tells him all about their "revenge plan" and he tells him about how stupid Chris is ( _"Whatever, nerd"_ ) and he tells him all about how Yuuri and Victor found out and he tells him all about how much he likes Yuuri.

Chris, being the best friend he's proven to be, laughs his ass off.

"That sucks," he offers as his wise advice. "You should just tell him."

Victor needs better friends and Chris laughs harder when he tells him just that.

 

 

**[INTERMISSION:**

**THREE WEEKS LATER]**

Chris isn't surprised when Phichit corners him in one of the hallways on campus. He knows exactly what he's going to say.

"Yuuri?" he asks.

Phichit groans. "Yuuri is driving me insane again."

Chris nods darkly, remembering how last night, Victor waxed poetics about Yuuri for almost a full hour. "Let me guess… he won't shut up about how much he likes Victor?"

" _Yes_."

"I feel that. Victor has really made me consider moving out in these past couple weeks. I can't believe they're still "fake-dating" or whatever when they've  _literally_ both told us it wasn't real."

Phichit groans again. "I know! I mean… they don't know or whatever that the other has told because they're idiots and think they're alone in their affections, but _please_ , Chris, if I have to hear another damn word about how pretty "Vitya's eyelashes" are, I'm going to jump off a building and sing on the way down."

Chris nods, understanding all too well. "I can't believe they're driving us the most insane after telling us their terrible revenge plan. Now, that's what we call irony."

Phichit looks like he's about to start crying at that. "I'm so tired. I just want some sleep. Finals are coming up and Yuuri's incompetence and stubborn attitude about his feelings remaining a secret is stressing me out beyond belief."

Chris yawns just as he says that. "Victor has barely let me get any sleep. He thinks it's okay to keep me up every night to tell me about any single interaction he had with Yuuri that day. It's horrible. I'm miserable. My best friend is making me miserable."

A pause. "Should we… should we do something about it? Like last time?"

 _It's tempting, definitely_ , Chris thinks. _But…._

"No, I think we should let them handle it. We can't be so involved in their love lives. I mean, if they still aren't dating in a year, we can help them out a bit, but for right now, we should just let it be. They'll be fine. I think."

Phichit nods. "You're right. But if I fail my exams, it's your fault."

Chris grins. "Noted."

 

 

 

The observatory is quiet when Yuuri arrives. It's been about two months since they started their fake-dating adventure and Yuuri's gotten used to the guilt of living vicariously through their fake relationship to be close to Victor.

 _I'll tell him one day,_ he promises. _I swear I will_.

Yuuri is honest about everything except for this. And it eats away at him at night sometimes. He hates lying to Victor, but he's so afraid of losing him. He's terrified of losing one of the most meaningful relationships he's ever gotten the chance to experience.

Victor and Yuuri have spent every waking moment together this past month especially and Yuuri feels like he's been on cloud nine.

He spots Victor standing by the pole and staring up at the sky. He looks beautiful.

"Victor," he grins, coming up behind him and hugging him. Victor jumps in shock but is quick to spin him around and hug him back.

"Yuuri!" he says. They saw each just a couple hours ago, but Yuuri missed him. He always does.

"When'd you get here?"

"About ten minutes ago. Don't worry," Victor teases. "I didn't wait for long."

Yuuri sighs. "Did you get it?"

"The report for the semester?"

Yuuri nods. Victor smirks at him. "I did."

"Stop smirking, idiot."

"Oh, I wouldn't be calling you current valedictorian "idiot" if I were you."

Yuuri rolls his eyes and pulls away finally. "Well, enjoy it while you can because I'll take back my _rightful_ spot soon enough."

"Uh huh."

Yuuri looks to the sky. "It’s a nice night out," he comments. The stars are beautiful.

Victor nods and Yuuri can feel the nervous energy in the air. He frowns. What's going on?

"Yuuri. I think we should talk."

Yuuri feels anxious immediately. Victor is going to call off the fake-dating. And… and he should. He's right. They should. It isn't right that it's gone on for so long, anyway. They needed to end it one day, and Yuuri was just being selfish. They should just end it. They should.

He swallows and nods slowly. "You're right."

Victor blinks. "Well, it's about the fake-dating thing."

 _Yeah_ , Yuuri thinks. _I know._

(And Yuuri ignores all the thoughts where he entertained the idea that maybe Victor loved him back, oh god _loved_ , but he hadn't let himself become lost in it. But sometimes… sometimes Victor looked at him like he did love him, even in the moments when there was nobody around, and Yuuri never understood, but he _did_ , he _does,_ because he's sure he looks at Victor the same way, but he was wrong, he's always wrong, and Victor is here to call it off and they'll remain friends and nothing more.)

 _And that's okay_ , Yuuri thinks firmly. _I won't be selfish here._

Victor is looking at him strangely, but he takes in a deep breath anyway.

"We should stop fake-dating."

Yuuri nods, fighting back a sob. _This is okay_ , he thinks. _It's for the better_.

"I agree. It's gone on for too long."

And there Victor is again, looking at him weirdly. He seems distraught with every word he speaks.

"Yeah…."

Yuuri nods and agrees once again. "Okay. Well. We're not fake-dating anymore. I'm single again!" he jokes, forcing out a laugh.

Victor just nods, pursing his lips.

 _What's up with him_? Yuuri thinks worriedly, taking in Victor's entire posture.

And then, all at once, just as clearly as he knows the sun rises and sets, Yuuri understands.

The breath is seemingly knocked out of him.

Oh.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

And he grins.

"You want us to stop fake-dating, right?" he clarifies once again. Victor nods, seeming sad all of a sudden.

And Yuuri was _right._ All his stupid intuitions saying that Victor _had_ to have loved—liked—him back were _right_.

Yuuri lets out a deep breath. _Here goes._ "Okay, well that's perfect because now we can start dating for real."

He regrets it immediately because _oh shit_ , _wait what if he's wrong, oh no_ , but he keeps his gaze on Victor, determined, and he sees how Victor's expression changes, and he thinks again, _I was right I was right I was right I was right I was right_ and

Victor leans in and kisses him.

Yuuri thinks back to all the times he wondered what it was like to kiss Victor and he remembers all the moments where they clasped hands so tightly and Yuuri marveled at how warm he felt and he thinks, in this single moment, that Victor is warmer than all the stars combined.

Eventually, they pull back, Victor grinning widely at him.

"I can't believe I'm going to be dating my Mortal Arch Nemesis," Victor says softly.

Yuuri pushes him gently, still blushing from the kiss. He tries not to think about how cute Victor is blushing as well.

"I'm still going to graduate as valedictorian," Yuuri declares after a few short seconds. Victor laughs gently, pulling him close.

"It's nice to have dreams, isn't it?" he retaliates.

Yuuri rolls his eyes, pulling him closer. Victor is warm. He's warm. They're warm. Yuuri feels so comfortable.

"Hey, Vitya?"

"Yeah?"

"Want to fake-date forever?"

Victor laughs. "Hell yeah."

Yuuri grins and pulls away. "Too bad. I only date salutatorians."

Victor pushes him away with a scoff and Yuuri laughs way too hard at his own joke and the night sky is dull in comparison to their laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out to phichit and chris for being the worst and best friends of all time
> 
> also YES cheesy is my middle name, okay,,,,
> 
> also this star trek au had surprisingly little to do with star trek in it fjfjjffj i Apologize. this fic went everywhere and im a mess. anyway, i hope you enjoyed the fic!!! 
> 
> i'd love to know all your comments and such xxxx and if you have any questions about what lies in the future for them, you can ask! i probably won't write an epilogue, but i did have ideas about what happened to them and such :)
> 
> tell me who you think ended up being valedictorian ;)
> 
> okay i love u all lots!!!!!!!  
> if you wanna hmu on tumblr here u go: [literallynothingbutvictuuri](http://literallynothingbutvictuuri.tumblr.com/)  
> much love as always,  
> dianna xxxxx
> 
> also rip any plotholes. i don't think there are but if there are... rip me i guess


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